Breakdown of من دربارهی جرم صحبت نمیکردم.
من
I
صحبت کردنsohbat kardan
to speak / to talk
دربارهdarbâre
about / concerning
جرمjorm
crime
Questions & Answers about من دربارهی جرم صحبت نمیکردم.
How is the negative past continuous formed in the verb صحبت نمیکردم?
The compound verb here is صحبت کردن (to talk). To make it negative past continuous, we leave the non-verb part صحبت alone and modify the verb part. We combine the negative prefix ne-, the continuous prefix mi-, the past stem kard, and the personal ending -am for 'I'.
Why is the negative prefix pronounced ne- instead of na-?
Usually, the negative prefix is na-. However, whenever it attaches directly before the continuous prefix mi-, its pronunciation always shifts to ne- to make it easier to say. That is why it is ne-mi-kard-am and not 'na-mi-kard-am'.
Why does the word درباره (about) have a ی attached to it here?
The word درباره ends in a silent 'h' which acts as a vowel. Because it is linking to the next noun جرم (crime), it needs the connecting grammatical vowel called the ezāfe. To link two vowels smoothly, Farsi adds the consonant ی (y), making the ending sound like '-ye'.
Could we drop the pronoun من from this sentence?
Yes, absolutely! Because the verb ending -am in نمیکردم already clearly means 'I', the word من is completely optional. Using it here just adds a little extra emphasis to the fact that it was you who was not talking about it.
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