This article describes the grammar of the standard Tajik language as spoken and written in Tajikistan. In general, the grammar of the Tajik language fits the analytical type. Little remains of the case system, and grammatical relationships are primarily expressed via clitics, word order and other analytical constructions. Like other modern varieties of Persian, Tajik grammar is almost identical to the classic Persian grammar, although there are differences in some verb tenses.
Nouns
Nouns are not marked for grammatical gender, although they are marked for number. Natural gender is usually distinguished by a change of word, like English, e.g. мурғ 'fowl' and хурӯс 'rooster'. Alternatively the modifiers 'нар' for male or 'мода' for female can be pre or post-posed to the noun, e.g. хар-и нар 'male donkey' and хар-и мода 'female donkey'. The article does not exist, although the definitedirect object is marked by a suffix, -ро. The use of this suffix is mandatory when a previously referenced object is being talked about. Nouns may exhibit several suffixes. Of these suffixes, the plural marker is found first, followed by any possessive markers followed by the direct object marker. For example, in the following noun: This may be understood as ] ] ], translation: "your books"
Number
Two forms of number exist in Tajik, singular and plural. The plural is marked by either the suffix -ҳо or -он, although Arabic loan words may use Arabic forms. While -ҳо can be used with any noun, the suffix -он is primarily used with animate nouns and has the variants -ён which is used with words ending in -ӣ, ӯ or -о, -вон for words ending in у, and -гон which is used with words ending in -а. For example, the singular for 'horse' is асп, and the plural, 'horses' can be either аспҳо or аспон. Typically, the -он ending is reserved for animate objects, although this is not always true. For example, body parts that come in pairs, such as даст, meaning "hand" and чашм, meaning "eye" are pluralized as дастон and чашмон, respectively.
ҷазира - ҷазираҳо
бунёдгаро - бунёдгароён
парранда - паррандагон/паррандаҳо
For words ending in ӣ, the ӣ is shortened to и before suffixes
моҳӣ - моҳиён/моҳиҳо
Irregular plurals from Arabic exist in a fair number of words, though—due to the lesser influence of Arabo-Islamic learning in modernity—these tend to be less widely used in Tajik than in other varieties of Persian.
мӯъҷиза - мӯъҷизаҳо/мӯъҷизот
Adjectives
There is no agreement of the adjective, or modifier with the head word. Adjectives do not take the plural markers -он or -ҳо. Typically, adjectives follow the nouns they modify, and are linked with the izafet construction, for example: китоби хуб and китобҳои хуб. However, the superlative typically precedes the noun. For example, Comparative forms use the suffix '-тар', while superlative forms use the suffix '-тарин'.
Izofa-construction
The izofa-construction is the name given to the combination of a head word and a modifier using the unstressed enclitic, -и,. In the plural, the enclitic is placed after the plural marker. Pronominal enclitics and the definite marker are placed at the end of the izafet-construction, for example, китоби хубам, "my good book".
The 2nd person plural, шумо also finds use as the polite form of the 2nd person. In written Tajik, this polite usage is distinguished by the capitalisation of the term шумо, for example, Шумо кай меоед?, trans. "when are you coming?" vs. шумо кай меоед?, trans. "when are you coming?" ***Note in Northern Dialects of Tajik, the plural form of шумо is шумоён and is conjugated as кай шумоён меоедетон? or when are you all coming?
Enclitic forms
There are enclitics used after words to denote possession.
Person
Singular
Plural
1st
-ам 'my'
-амон 'our'
2nd
-ат 'your'
-атон 'your'
3rd
-аш 'his/her/its'
-ашон 'their'
For example: китоб, китобам, китобат. When following a vowel, for example китобҳо, the leading '-а' is changed to '-я'. The phrase "their books", would be китобҳояшон.
Prepositions
Verbs
Verbal conjugation is very similar to that of Persian, though there are very distinct differences, particularly in compound tenses such as the progressive tenses.
Infinitives and stems
Infinitives end in -тан or -дан. The principle parts to remember are the past stem and present stem. The past stem is the easier to recognize, as it is determined simply by removing the -ан from the infinitive.
кардан - кард
доштан - дошт
пазируфтан - пазируфт
The present stem tends to vary more, and in many common verbs bears little resemblance to the infinitive or past stem. In some verbs, the present stem is identical to the past stem, but for the -t/-d.
Personal forms of verbs are formed mostly with simple prefixes and suffixes. Prefixes tend to be modal, while the suffixes are personal. The personal suffixes are:
-ам
-ӣ
* -ед
-ад, nul
-ем
-ед /-едетон
-анд
The most important and common prefix is the progressive ме- which forms imperfective tenses. Instructions for forming various tenses will be given below with example conjugations of the verb кардан. An example translation will be given for the 1st person singular to give a basic idea of the tense's use.
Simple past
The simple past is formed with the past stem and personal endings.
ман кардам
ту кардӣ
ӯ кард
мо кардем
шумо кардед
онҳо карданд
Present imperfect
The present imperfect is formed by prefixing ме- to the present stem with personal endings
ман мекунам
ту мекунӣ
ӯ мекунад
мо мекунем
шумо мекунед
онҳо мекунанд
Past imperfect
The past imperfect is formed by prefixing ме- to the simple past
ман мекардам
ту мекардӣ
ӯ мекард
мо мекардем
шумо мекардед
онҳо мекарданд
Present perfect
The present perfect is formed by adding the personal suffixes to the past participle.
ман кардаам
ту кардаӣ
ӯ карда
мо кардаем
шумо кардаед
онҳо кардаанд
Pluperfect
The pluperfect is a compound tense formed from the past participle and the simple perfect of the verb будан
In this example, the subjunctive form кунам is dependent on мехоҳам. As such, the subjunctive alone does not translate easily into English and the translation is heavily dependent on the context of the sentence.