Examples have audio.
Past Imperfective (2)
It was already mentioned in the “past imperfective” lesson that the main usage of the past imperfective is to express habitual actions in the past.
در آن زمان مردم از کسوف میترسیدند.
At the time, people were afraid of eclipse[s].
In the lesson on “conditional sentences”, it was mentioned that it can be used for counterfactuals as well.
اگر حقیقت را میگفت کشته میشد.
If he said the truth, he would be killed.
In addition to these two, there is another important situation where the past imperfective comes into action; in sentences expressing the necessity of something in the past. In such sentences, Persian does not make a distinction between the case where the necessary thing has occurred and the cases where it has not. Compare the (1) and (2) translations in the examples below.
باید درس میخواندی.
باید آنجا میبودی و به برادرت
کمک میکردی.
کمک میکردی.
خوب بود با پدرت هم مشورت میکردی.
باید این کار را میکردم.
باید منظور ما را میفهمید.
1- You should have studied.
2- You had to study. (As you actually did.)
2- You had to study. (As you actually did.)
1- You should have been there and helped your brother.
2- You had to be there and help your brother.
2- You had to be there and help your brother.
It would be good if you consulted with your father too.
1- I should have done this job.
2- I had to do this job. (and therefore I did it.)
2- I had to do this job. (and therefore I did it.)
1- He should have understood our intention.
2- He had to understand our intention.
2- He had to understand our intention.
Don’t confuse this usage with that of the past subjunctive (the third usage of the past subjunctive in our list; necessity), which was for cases where the action is expected to have happened in the past (in other words, the necessity concerned the truth of the statement rather than, say, a duty of the subject).
باید منظور ما را فهمیده باشد.
مهمانهایشان باید تا الآن رفته باشند.
He must have understood our intention.
Their guests must be gone by now.