Un bougnoule qui n’était pas fait pour l’école

In addition to the structures outlined for the preterite and imperfect tenses when dealing with transitive verbs (where the subject of the sentence commits an action which affects the object of the sentence), it is also possible to use the oblique pronouns instead of the enclitic possessive/personal pronouns (me, de, ye ect.). The oblique pronouns are:

• Mā / ما
• Tā / تا
• Hagha / هغه (m)
• Haghe / هغې (f)
• Mūnz͟h / مونږ
• Tāsō / تاسو
• Haghoy / هغوي (m+f)
  

The construction of setences using these oblique pronouns is essentially the same as with using the enclitic possessive/personal pronouns; the sentence is still structured so that the object becomes the subject, and the verb is being conjugated according what is happening to that object, not what is being done to the object. So here are a few examples comparing how you can make sentences with the two types of pronouns:

Ḏōḏäy-me khwaṟäla / ډوډۍ مې خوړله / I was eating bread
Mā ḏōḏäy khwaṟäla / ما ډوډۍ خوړله / I was eating bread

Mā tä wälīdäle / ما ته ولیدلې / I saw you
Tä-me wälīdäle / ته مې ولیدلې / I saw you

The main difference here is quite simple; since the enclitic pronouns are well, enclitic, they will always come after the noun, whereas the oblique pronouns are not, and will always come before the noun. This also holds true when there is only the pronoun and the verb, for example:

Wälīdä-me / ولیده مې / I saw it (m)
Mā wälīdä / ما ولیده / I saw it (m)

Besides the preterite and imperfect past tenses, which I will call the ’simple’ past tenses, there are also two compound past tenses that consist of the past participle and the auxiliary verb ‘to be’. As far as I can tell, there exists today no infinitive form of the verb ‘to be’ in Pashto, though it is thought to derive from the now obsolete yäl / یل.

Forming the past participle is relatively straightforward, it is done by adding -é / ئ (masculine) or ī / ی (feminine) onto the end of the infinitive form of the verb. The key to being able to use these tenses is to know the two forms of ‘to be’ inside out.

• Yäm / یم – I am
• Ye / یې – You are
• Dé / دئ – He is
• Da / ده – She is
• Yū / یو – We are
• Yäy / یۍ – You are
• Dī / دي – They are (m+f)

• Wäm / وم – I was
• We / وې – You were
• Wä / و – He was
• Wa / وه – She was
• Wū / وو – We were
• Wäy / وۍ – You were
• Wū / وو – They were (m)
• Wī / وي – They were (f)

When using these two compound tenses gender is very important. As with using the present tense in Urdu, gender has to be taken into account when speaking in the singular first person, second person and third person.

Zä rāghälé yäm / زه راغلئ یم / I (a male) have come
Tä rāghälī ye / ته راغلی یې / You (a female) have come
Ḏāktar rāghälé dé / ډاکتر راغلئ دئ / The doctor (a male) has come
Ḏāktara rāghälī da / ډاکتره راغلی ده / The doctor (a female) has come

However, in the first, second and third person plurals (we, you, they), the past participle is always formed in the feminine, regardless of the gender of the group that you are referring to.

Mūnz͟h rāghälī yū / مونږ راغلی یو / We have come
Tāsō rāghälī yäy / تاسو راغلی یۍ / You have come
Haghoy rāghälī dī / هغوي راغلی دي / They have come

Again, with transitive verbs the sentence structure takes the same form as with the preterite and imperfect tenses. This can be demonstrated with the verbs ‘to eat’ (khwaräl) and ‘to see’ (līdäl)

Mā seb khwaṟälé dé / ما سېب خوړلئ دئ / I have eaten the apple
Seb-me khwaṟälé dé / سېب مې خوړلئ دئ / I have eaten the apple

Mā ghrūna līdälé dī / ما غرونه لیدلئ دي / I have seen the mountains
Ghrūna-me līdälé dī / غرونه مې لیدلئ دي / I have seen the mountains

Haghe maṉa khwaṟälī wa / هغې مڼه خوړلی وه / She had eaten the apple*
Maṉa-ye khwaṟälī wa / مڼه ئې خوړلی وه / She had eaten the apple*

Mūnz͟h ghrūna līdälé wū / مونږ غرونه لیدلئ وو / We had seen the mountains
Ghrūna-mō līdälé wū /  غرونه مو لیدلئ وو / We had seen the mountains

* In these sentences, ‘maṉa’ is an alternative word for apple, which in this case is a feminine noun, unlike ’seb’ which is a masculine noun, so in these sentences the past participle takes the feminine ‘ī’ form, and the auxiliary ‘to be’ is conjugated in the third person feminine singular.