Word
او دیشب سینما بود.
Meaning
He was at the cinema last night.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about او دیشب سینما بود.
Where is the word for "at" in this sentence?
In English, we say "at the cinema." In formal Farsi, you would use the preposition در (dar) for "in" or "at", making it او دیشب در سینما بود. However, in everyday spoken Farsi, this preposition is very often dropped when the location is obvious, leaving just سینما بود (was at the cinema).
Does او specifically mean "he"?
No, Farsi pronouns are completely gender-neutral. او can mean "he" or "she" (and sometimes "it" for animals). We translated it as "he" here, but "She was at the cinema last night" is just as correct. You rely on the context of the conversation to know who is being talked about.
Why doesn't the verb بود (bud) have a personal ending?
In the simple past tense, the third-person singular (he/she/it) form never takes a personal ending. It is simply the past stem of the verb. The infinitive for "to be" is بودن (budan). If you remove the -an ending, you get the past stem بود (bud), which is exactly what we use for "he/she/it was".
Why does دیشب (dishab - last night) come right after the subject?
In Farsi, words that tell us when something happened (time adverbs) usually come at or near the beginning of the sentence, often right after the subject. Also, because Farsi puts the main verb at the very end of the sentence, time words naturally get pushed earlier than they might appear in English.