بودنِ / رفتنِ

Infinitives as Noun Phrases

Level 6

بودنِ تو در اینجا + به من آرامش می‌دهد. The whole first phrase is the subject.

How It Works

Find the noun-phrase boundary. In بودنِ تو در اینجا به من آرامش می‌دهد, بودنِ تو در اینجا names the state. می‌دهد is the finite main verb. Do not read بودن as a missing second-person copula.

Identify the participant with ezafe. رفتنِ سارا به تهران names Sara’s going to Tehran. Sara follows the infinitive through ezafe; the construction does not mean that Sara owns an object called going.

Add modifiers and object marking. رفتنِ زودهنگامِ او را لازم نمی‌دانم evaluates the whole nominal phrase as the object. زودهنگام modifies the going, او identifies its participant, and را marks the complete object phrase.

Compare a finite clause. سارا به تهران رفت reports an event with a person-marked past verb. رفتنِ سارا به تهران مهم بود makes that event a named topic and comments on its importance. Formal prose often uses such dense phrases, but a finite clause may make the relation clearer.

Examples (4)

  1. بودنِ تو در اینجا به من آرامش می‌دهد.

    Your being here gives me peace of mind.

  2. رفتنِ سارا به تهران مهم بود.

    Sara’s going to Tehran was important.

  3. رفتنِ زودهنگامِ او را لازم نمی‌دانم.

    I do not consider their leaving early necessary.

  4. قبل از رفتنِ مهمان‌ها، چای آوردیم.

    Before the guests left, we brought tea.

    رفتنِ مهمان‌ها is the complement of the before phrase.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

بودنِ / رفتنِLevel 6Infinitives as Noun Phrases

Learn This First

Recognize an infinitive independently of a finite verb. Keep the nominal phrase and its linked modifiers together. Find the noun phrase’s role and the actual main finite predicate.