The Past Perfect
Put نـ on the participle for the negative: نرفته بودم (I had not gone).
How It Works
| Person | Form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| من | رفته بودم | I had gone |
| تو | رفته بودی | you had gone |
| او | رفته بود | he or she had gone |
| ما | رفته بودیم | we had gone |
| شما | رفته بودید | you had gone |
| آن‌ها | رفته بودند | they had gone |
The participle رفته comes from the past stem رفت with ـه. The person is shown by the ending on بود. The negative puts نـ on the participle: نرفته بودم.
Compare the present perfect: رفته‌ام (I have gone) talks about now. رفته بودم talks about an earlier time, before a point in the past. Words such as قبلاً (before), هرگز (never) and هنوز (yet) go well with it.
In وقتی که به دکان رسیدیم، نان تمام شده بود, the bread ran out first and then we arrived.
When two past events follow each other in the order they happened, use the simple past for both: وقتی رسیدیم، چای خوردیم. Use the past perfect only for the earlier event, when you look back from a later moment.
Examples (5)
- وقتی به دکان رسیدیم، نان تمام شده بود.
When we got to the shop, the bread had run out.
تمام شده بود is the past perfect: the bread was finished before we arrived.
- تا آن روز هرگز به بامیان نرفته بودم.
Until that day I had never been to Bamiyan.
نرفته بودم is the negative: نـ goes on the participle.
- مادرم قبل از آمدن ما نان پخته بود.
My mother had baked bread before we came.
پخته بود shows that the baking was finished first.
- وقتی زنگ زدی، من هنوز نان نخورده بودم.
When you called, I had not eaten yet.
نخورده بودم is the negative past perfect, and هنوز adds yet.
- آن‌ها قبلاً یک بار به کابل آمده بودند.
They had come to Kabul once before.
آمده بودند is the past perfect for آن‌ها.
Common Mistakes
Using the present perfect where the story is in the past.
وقتی رسیدیم، بس رفته است.وقتی رسیدیم، بس رفته بود.The bus left before we arrived, so use بود, not است.
How It Connects
Learn This First
The past perfect is the present perfect one step earlier.
Related Patterns
Learn Next
Patterns that build on this one.
Practice The Past Perfect in Bubblegum
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