I managed to get the domain I bought (http://www.jiqbal.net) sorted out, it wasn’t bad at all, I got it through UK2 with a £10 voucher, so I essentially got it for free, but then I had to buy something else to get rid of the ugly banner they placed ontop of the page, and I think I payed £2.00 for that because I used the voucher again. I picked a new theme too, I thought that would be a nice change and I like the green scheme.
I think that I have finally cracked Pashto regular verb conjugation in the past tenses! Keep the infinitive marker (except for hagha (m) where the infinitive marker äl is removed first) and add the following endings…
- Zä – äm / م
- Tä – e / ې
- Hagha (m) – ä / ه
- Hagha (f) – a / ه
- Mūnz͟h – ū / و
- Tāsō – äy / ۍ
- Haghoy (m) – no ending
- Haghoy (f) – e / ې
You can leave the verb as it is and it will be in the imperfect past tense, and to make the preterite past tense add perfective particle ‘wä’ before the conjugated verb. However, to make a complex sentence where someone performs an action to another person or object, in either of these past tenses, a different construction must be used with the short form of the possessive pronouns, which in these constructions change meaning from ‘my’ to ‘by me’, ‘your’ to ‘by you’ ect.
Ḏōḏäy me khwaṟäla / ډوډۍ مې خورله / I was eating bread
This literally translates as: ‘bread / by me / it (f) was eating’. It doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense when literally translated, and the best way I have come up with to explain how it works in English is “The bread was being eaten by me”. As far as I can tell, you can’t say “I was eating the bread”, eg: Zä ḏōḏäy khwaṟäläm / زه ډوډۍ خوړلم: this is totally incorrect!
Another example of this:
Wälīdä me / ولیده مې / I saw it
The literal translation of this is: ‘it (m) saw / by me’, but again, the English translation of this would be ‘I saw it’ and the construction here would best be described as ‘It was seen by me’. A discrepancy between these two is that in the first example, مې came before the verb, whereas here it is after the verb. The reason for this I believe is because as there is no subject here, it has to be put at the end of the verb which is now acting as both the verb and the subject, however, if I changed the sentence and added a subject, the short form personal pronoun would return to the position in the first example.
Haläk me wälīdä / هلك مې ولیده / I saw the boy
So in short, to be able to use the preterite and imperfect tenses in Pashto, it is necessary to know not only the conjugation patterns but also the short forms of the possessive pronouns.
- Me / مې – My or by me
- De / دې – Your or by you
- Ye / ئې – His, her, its or by him, by her, by it
- Mō / مو – Our or by us
- Mō / مو – Your or by you
- Ye / ئې – Their or by them
I have also seen the oblique pronouns being used in some past tense constructions, but i have no idea how they work. To sum up; Pashto is a very hard language.
buitems said,
July 25, 2008 @ 8:25 am
Zä khwaṟäläm / زه خوړلم / I ate
Zä wäkhwaṟäläm / زه وخوړلم / I was eating
Actually. There are many styles ways of speaking in pashto. The pashto of afghanistan is different from the pashto of people living in quetta,balochistan. And the pashto of Peshawar seems totally different than both. so as far is my pashto is concerned ur going correct at all parts except at the point where u wrote ZA KHWARALAM….Which u said means I ATE. But its wrong. I ate should be said as MA WAKHWARALA. And i was eating should be like ” MA KHWARALA”. We actually use MA instead of ZA. so the line of I ATE BREAD would be like. “MA DODAI WAKHWARALA”
Jade said,
July 25, 2008 @ 12:07 pm
Aaah I see, this is what I thought but I was not sure! So does “Mā ḏōḏäy wäkhwaṟälä’ (ما ډوډۍ وخوړله) mean the same as “Ḏōḏäy me wäkhwaṟäla” (ډوډۍ مې وخوړله)? And is “Mā ḏōḏäy khwaṟälä’ (ما ډوډۍ خوړله) the same as “Ḏōḏäy me khwaṟäla” (ډوډۍ مې خوړله)?
Also, if I wanted to say for example, ‘you ate me’, would the sentence be:
Tā zä wäkhwaṟäläm (تا زه وخوړلم) or Zä de wäkhwaṟäläm (زه دې وخوړلم)?
Ḏer mehrabāni!
Jade said,
July 25, 2008 @ 12:44 pm
One more question! If you were to say a past tense sentence where an ‘action’ was not happening from a person to another person, or from a person to an object, is it still possible to ‘Zë’ instead of ‘Mā’ or ‘Me’? For example:
I went to school
Zë maktab ta wälāṟäm
زه مکتب ته ولاړم
She was going to school
Hagha maktab ta lāṟä
هغه مکتب ته لاره
We came to Pakistan
Mūnz͟h Pākistān ta rāghälū
مونږ پاکستن ته راغلو
Thanks again
buitems said,
July 27, 2008 @ 11:40 am
Ur right here. We use ZE .When we say i went to school. Za mmaktab da walaram. And MA is when we presently talk about things.
The 3 sentences are correct aswell as the comment about Doday me khuwarala.
Also ur right at the point at saying “ZE DE WOKHUWRALAM”. Usually used in pashto songs. if u would like to understand more pashto. try listening to pashto songs. I might help u with that aswell.
Jade said,
July 28, 2008 @ 5:29 pm
Thanks for clarifying! I like some Pashto artists like Zeek Afridi, Farhad Darya, Nazia Iqbal, Rahim Shah ect… My favorite Pashto album at the moment is Nazia Iqbal – Mehrabani Janana, do you know it?
I added another post about Pashto grammar, could you let me know if there are any mistakes? Manana
buitems said,
July 29, 2008 @ 2:57 pm
Listen to nashenas, sarban , qamar gula and parasto. These are legends. Especially nashenas. Try listening to his concert songs on the internet. There r more clear and understandable at listening.
My fav these dayz is parasto song
Janana rasha, janana rasha chi pakula shu
Umar da zami(winter) mazdigar daye tair ba si na.