This is a lesson about infinitives in Farsi. All the infinitives in Farsi end
in "دن" or "تن". Let's look at some
examples. For example, the verb "رفتن".
To go. So as you can see, it is in "تن". And "گفتن".
To say, or sometimes to tell, and in "تن". Another one:
"نوشتن" to write.
تن: رفتن، گفتن، نوشتن.
Or they end in "دن". Like "دیدن", to see, or "خواندن", to read. Another example:
"خریدن
To buy. So as you can see it, ends in "دن".
It's "تن" or "دن". So all the infinitives in Farsi end in "دن" or "تن". There are some
points that are important to know about infinitives. Infinitives, like in other
languages, they function like a noun. They are not verbs, even though we say "to go."
But it's a noun. It has a verbal meaning without implying time
and person, when I say "رفتن", to go in English.
Generally, in English, like "going", has the same meaning as "to go." To go or going for Farsi
speakers is it's like "رفتن". But it doesn't imply who
went or who goes. We don't know because the infinitive doesn't tell us, and we
don't know when. In the past or present or future, we don't know, while
a verb implies a person in Farsi, and a tense; past, present or
future. Another important point is that all the different tenses of a verb
in Farsi somehow are formed from infinitive. So for example "رفتن", when
you want to form a past tense, you need to drop "ن". When you want to form a
past perfect, you need the infinitive, you need to form a past participle and
conjugate it with another verb, in order to have the past perfect. Also they are
used in sentences as I said like a noun. For example,
برای خوردن وقت داریم.
For eating, we have time. "برای" is a preposition. Like other
languages, in Farsi as well, after any proposition you need to have a noun. Here
we have "خوردن", to eat. Or it's better to translate it as "eating." So it shows that
it's a noun, even though it has a verbal meaning. It implies an action, but without
implying tense or person. We don't know who ate or when, from just this word.
For eating, we have time. The this was a lesson about
infinitive in Farsi.