Breakdown of آنها تصمیم گرفتند که به ساحل برگردند.
آنها
they
بهbe
to
کهke
that (conjunction)
تصمیم گرفتنtasmim-e gereftan
to decide
Questions & Answers about آنها تصمیم گرفتند که به ساحل برگردند.
Why do we use که (ke) in the middle of this sentence?
که (ke) acts like a bridge between the main verb (تصمیم گرفتند, they decided) and the action they decided to do. While it literally means "that", in English we usually translate this structure using "to", as in "They decided TO return".
Why are both verbs conjugated with the "they" ending?
In Farsi, when you have a sentence like "they decided to return", you do not use the infinitive for the second verb. Instead, both verbs must match the subject. So literally, the sentence says "They decided that they return". Both گرفتند (gereftand) and برگردند (bargardand) take the third-person plural ending -and.
Why doesn't the second verb (برگردند) have the usual subjunctive be- prefix?
The verb "to return" is برگشتن (bargashtan), which is a prefixed verb starting with بر (bar-). When a verb already has a prefix like بر- (bar-), we do not add the subjunctive be- prefix. We just conjugate the present stem, which gives us برگردند (bargardand).
What tense is تصمیم گرفتند (tasmim gereftand)?
It is in the simple past tense. The infinitive is تصمیم گرفتن (tasmim gereftan, to decide). The stem for the past tense is گرفت (gereft), and we add the "they" ending -and to show that the decision was already made in the past.