Breakdown of او برای تمیز کردن شیشه، پیراهن خود را پاره کرده بود.
او
he/she
پیراهنpirâhan
shirt
برایbarâye
for
کردنkardan
to do / to make
Questions & Answers about او برای تمیز کردن شیشه، پیراهن خود را پاره کرده بود.
Why do we use pāreh kardan here instead of pāreh shodan?
Pāreh kardan is the transitive form, meaning "to tear [something]". Because the subject "he" is actively doing the tearing to an object (the shirt), we use the kardan (to do) version. If you wanted to say the shirt tore on its own, you would use the intransitive pāreh shodan (to become torn).
The sentence uses tamiz kardan (to clean). What would happen if I used tamiz shodan?
The meaning would change from an active action to a change of state. Tamiz kardan means "to clean [something]", which fits because he is cleaning the glass. Tamiz shodan means "to become clean". For example, shisheh tamiz shod means "the glass became clean".
Why does the sentence use pirāhan-e khod rā instead of just adding the possessive ending to make pirāhanash rā?
Both are grammatically correct and mean "his shirt", but khod emphasizes that it was his own shirt. When the subject of the sentence (he) is also the owner of the object, Farsi often uses the reflexive khod (self/own) to avoid any ambiguity about whose shirt it was.
What tense is pāreh kardeh bud and why is it used instead of the simple past pāreh kard?
It is the past perfect tense, meaning "had torn". It is formed using the past participle (pāreh kardeh) plus the past tense of "to be" (bud). It is used here to show that the action of tearing the shirt was fully completed in the past before the main focus of the story.