The perfect aspect of Persian has two main usages, and is not as common as the previous conjugations we went over, but useful all the same. The first usage is the present perfect, which is used to refer to actions which have already been completed but are relevant and ought to be brought up. The second usage is the past perfect, also used to refer to actions which have already been completed, but only when referring to an event which occurred in the past.

Present Perfect

The present perfect is formed by:

1. Having the past stem of a verb (e.g: the past stem of raftan (رفتن) is raft (رفت).

2. Adding -e (ه) to the end of the past stem.

3. Adding a personal ending to the verb depending on the pronoun in question.

Examples of this include:

• rafte-am (رفته ام) "I have gone."

• neveshte-i (نوشته ای) "You have written."

• gofte-im (گفته ایم) "We have said."

Past Perfect

The past perfect is nearly identical to the present perfect in terms of formation, but instead of using hastan (هستن), or the shortened version we just used, we use the past tense of it, which is budan (بودن). Therefore, the past-tense is formed by:

1. Having the past stem of a verb (e.g: the past stem of raftan (رفتن) is raft (رفت).

2. Adding -e (ه) to the end of the past stem.

3. Adding budan (بودن) after the verb, and conjugating accordingly depending on the pronoun in question.

Examples of this include:

• rafte budam (رفته بودم) "I had gone."

• karde bud (کرده بود) "She had done."

• dide budand (دیده بودند) "They had seen."