Future in Persian
Future tenseزمان آینده /zamân-e âyande/
If you are not a native English speaker, you can surely remember the struggle of learning the different forms of future tense in English. I remember the pictures in my English book indicating the different levels of intention. Is it a spontaneous decision or a previously done? Luckily, future tense in Persian is amazingly simple. Take the conjugated present form of the verb "khâstan" without any prefixes and take the past stem /short infinitive/ of the main verb; or what is more often: just simply use the present tense!
- with the auxiliary verb "khâstan"
In written and formal Persian, the future tense is formed with the help of the conjugated present stem of the verb "khâstan" followed by the past stem of the main verb.
In the case of a compound verb the auxiliary verb always comes between the two parts of the main verb.
For negative the prefix -na is added to the auxiliary verb.
- Present tense with a future meaning
In colloquial Persian instead of the above described form, the present stem is the most used form for the future. The usage of the auxiliary verb is restricted to the cases when the speaker would like to give a special emphasis that she or he is talking about the future. Even in formal and written Persian the present tense can always be used to describe the future.
Standard
Colloquial
- Examples
Tomorrow I will go to the university
- Lexical opportunities to express certainty or uncertainty
Of course, it doesn't mean that in Persian it is not possible to express uncertainty or certainty about the future. But instead of using different auxiliary verbs we can use different lexical elements and expressions.
In order to express a previously made decision, something that is likely to happen the verb "qarâr budan" can be used which literally means "to be supposed".
In
order to express the idea of "being about to do something" the verb "khâstan/khâh" can be used which literally means "to want". It is particularly used in
colloquial language.
