Persian: My back hurts.

[seitt]

Greetings,

Please, how do you say ‘My back hurts.’?

Oddly enough what I heard on Iran TV seemed to contain the word گرفت, but that means ‘take’, doesn't it?

Best wishes, and many thanks,

Simon

 

[searcher123]

پشتم درد گرفت (my back took pain)

Other examples:

سرم/چشمم/پام/دستم/دلم/... درد گرفت
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سرم/چشمم/پام/دستم/دلم/... درد مي‌كنه
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سرم/چشمم/پام/دستم/دلم/... درد داره
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سرم/چشمم/پام/دستم/دلم/... آسيب ديد
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من نمي‌تونم بيام، كمرم درد مي‌كنه
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ديروز كمرم بدجوري درد گرفته بود، ولي خدا رو شكر امروز بهترم
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توي اون تصادفي كه كردم، كمرم حسابي آسيب ديد، ولي الانه ديگه درد نداره
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[seitt]

Many thanks, perfect.

This is a very interesting use of گرفتن. I wonder if you can also use it as a noun like this: گرفتگی پشت دارم.

 

[searcher123]

Your sentence is correct, but the common structure of it is پشتم/كمرم گرفته (I have a spasm on my back). Yes, it is very common. Surely you know, but I would like to mention that گرفتگي كمر is different of كمر درد. Necessarily گرفتگي كمر is not along with pain.

 

[seitt]

Many thanks, very interesting (and well-explained) distinction.

 

[lietus]

Are dard kardan and dard gereftan synonymous, or is dard kardan transitive?

 

[Esfahan]

Hello
both of them are intransitive. dard kardan has a durative meaning so that when we say سرم درد می کنه it means "I have a headache" but dard gereftan states the starting time of having pain so that when we say سرم درد گرفت it generally means "my headache starts now". moreover dard gereftan expresses a causative process for example when we say

I cried a lot and now as a result I have headaches= از بس گریه کردم سرم درد گرفت

 

[searcher123]

Hello
both of them are intransitive. dard kardan has a durative meaning so that when we say سرم درد می کنه it means "I have a headache" but dard gereftan states the starting time of having pain so that when we say سرم درد گرفت it generally means "my headache starts now". moreover dard gereftan expresses a causative process for example when we say

I cried a lot and now as a result I have headaches= از بس گریه کردم سرم درد گرفت

What about if we say چون خيلي گريه كردم، سرم درد مي‌كنهi?

As you told too, از بس گريه كردم سرم درد گرفت is for past. Maybe now the headache is went away completely.

 

[searcher123]

Another example:

از بس گريه كردم سرم درد گرفت، هنوزم يه كمي درد مي‌كنه

از بس گريه كردم سرم درد گرفت، ولي الان ديگه درد نمي‌كنه

 

[Esfahan]

you are right searcher123!

I made a mistake, I think in order to show the difference of dard kardan and dard gereftan it is better to say dard kardan uses in the imperfect aspect but dard gereftan uses both in perfect aspect and imperfect aspect.

using dard kardan in the perfect aspect is not correct:
* سرم درد کرد.
but it is correct in the imperfect aspect:
سرم درد می کند

using dard gereftan in both cases is correct:
perfect aspect:
سرم درد گرفت
imperfect aspect:
وقتی عسل می خورم) سرم درد می گیرد

 

[lamino144]

you are right searcher123!

I made a mistake, I think in order to show the difference of dard kardan and dard gereftan it is better to say dard kardan uses in the imperfect aspect but dard gereftan uses both in perfect aspect and imperfect aspect.

using dard kardan in the perfect aspect is not correct:
* سرم درد کرد.
but it is correct in the imperfect aspect:
سرم درد می کند

using dard gereftan in both cases is correct:
perfect aspect:
سرم درد گرفت
imperfect aspect:
وقتی عسل می خورم) سرم درد می گیرد

I just wanted to point out that here you're using the preterite and the present respectively (not perfect and imperfect, correct me if i'm wrong). But I just realized that with the imperfect, it's common to use dard kardan:

imperfect (continuous action happening in the past):
سرم درد می کرد

 

[Esfahan]

I just wanted to point out that here you're using the preterite and the present respectively (not perfect and imperfect, correct me if i'm wrong). But I just realized that with the imperfect, it's common to use dard kardan:

imperfect (continuous action happening in the past):
سرم درد می کرد

no, I meant the aspect.

 

[lietus]

I just wanted to point out that here you're using the preterite and the present respectively (not perfect and imperfect, correct me if i'm wrong). But I just realized that with the imperfect, it's common to use dard kardan:

imperfect (continuous action happening in the past):
سرم درد می کرد

I think you may have misunderstood the more general meanings of perfect and imperfect. Anything with mi- in Persian is imperfective, mi-kard being past imperfective and mi-konad being present imperfective. Though the past imperfective is what most students of European languages would simply call "imperfect", we have to remember that simple present tenses are by definition imperfective. I think this is more recognized in Persian.


I do think preterite (or simple past) is the best thing to call "kard", though. Present perfect here would be karde ast, and past perfect (pluperfect) would be karde bud. Persian grammar uses very different grammatical terms than European languages, so different people will call different tenses different things.