Persian indicative

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Note: for an overview of the concept of verbal moods and tenses, see Mood and Tense, under the General Grammar section.

Present

The present tense is an imperfective tense, i.e., it describes actions or states that aren't finished yet. Its focus is on the action / state itself, as a process, and not on its results and consequences. The imperfective aspect of the tense is marked by the prefix می [mi-], which can be written united to or separate from the present stem (which is the stem used for the present tense). The present desinences are the basic conjugation suffixes, which are tagged after the present stem:

می mi-	Present Stem	ـم	-am
		ـی	-i
		ـد	-ad
		ـیم	-im
		ـید	-id
		ـند	-and

Infinitive خوردن xordan to eat	Present Stem ـخورـ -xor-	می‌خورم	mixoram
		می‌خوری	mixori
		می‌خورد	mixorad
		می‌خوریم	mixorim
		می‌خورید	mixorid
		می‌خورند	mixorand

To form the negative of the present tense, one adds نـ [ne-] to the affirmative conjugation:

نمی‌خورم	nemixoram
نمی‌خوری	nemixori
نمی‌خورد	nemixorad
نمی‌خوریم	nemixorim
نمی‌خورید	nemixorid
نمی‌خورند	nemixorand

If the present stem ends in an alef or a vâv, a ye is inserted between it and the desinences:

Infinitive	Present Stem	1st Person Singular
آمدن âmadan to come, to arrive	ـاـ -â-	می‌آیم	miâyam
گ�?تن goftan</br >to say	ـگوـ -gu-	می‌گویم	miguyam

In the case of the 2nd person singular, 1st person plural and 2nd person plural, however, it is more usual to insert a hamze instead of a ye:

Infinitive	Present Stem	1st Person Plural
آمدن âmadan to come, to arrive	ـاـ -â-	می‌آئیم	miâim
گ�?تن goftan</br >to say	ـگوـ -gu-	می‌گوئیم	miguim

The present tense is also used, especially in the oral language, to express an action / state that will happen soon in the future. Persian does have a future conjugation, but its modern usage is more restricted to the literary and formal language, and to fixed expressions.

Therefore:

میخورم : I eat / I am eating / I am going to eat
میائی : you come / you are coming / you are going to come

Perfect (Definite Past, Simple Past)

This is usually the first tense a student of Persian learns, because it is pretty straightforward—it is formed by combining the past stem with the basic personal endings (except for the 3rd person singular, which receives no desinence):

Past Stem	ـم	-am
	ـی	-i
	—	—
	ـیم	-im
	ـید	-id
	ـند	-and

Infinitive ر�?تن raftan to go	Past Stem ر�?تـ raft-	ر�?تم	raftam
		ر�?تی	rafti
		ر�?ت	raft
		ر�?تیم	raftim
		ر�?تید	raftid
		ر�?تند	raftand

The Perfect, as its name says, is a perfective tense, i.e., it indicates a completed action or state that has occurred at some point in the past—it describes a one-time event. The exact time of the action / state is usually indicated by time adverbs.

دیشب به بازار ر�?تیم	Dišam be bâzâr raftim.	We went to the market last night.
او پسرت را امروز در کوچه دید	U pesarat râ emruz dar kuce did.	He saw your son in the street today.

Literally: