Turkish verb conjugation and tenses
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Sign up for freeThere are 4 main tenses in the Turkish language:
The present continuous tense is used to show what is happening now at this moment and also used to express something that will happen in the near future. The present tense suffix "-iyor" (-ing) does not follow the vowel harmony rules and always retains in the "-yor-" form.
Şimdiki zaman | The present continuous tense |
---|---|
(Ben)geliyorum. | I am coming |
(Sen)geliyorsun. | You are coming. |
(O)geliyor. | He/she/it is coming. |
(Biz)geliyoruz. | We are coming. |
(Siz)geliyorsunuz. | You are coming |
(Onlar)geliyorlar. | They are coming. |
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The present simple tense shows a habitual action that someone has done in the past, still does now and will continue to do in the future. The suffix -(e/i)r is added to the root of the verb. These endings change to ''-ar, -er, -ır, -ir, -ur, -ür, -r'' depending on the vowel harmony rules.
Geniş zaman | The present simple tense |
---|---|
(Ben)gelirim. | I come. |
(Sen)gelirsin. | You come. |
(O)gelir. | He/she/it comes. |
(Biz)geliriz. | We come. |
(Siz)gelirsiniz. | You come. |
(Onlar)gelirler. | They come. |
The past tense shows completed events in the past. There are two suffixes that are used in the past tense in Turkish:
1. '-di' (definite past tense)
2. '-miş' (indefinite past tense).
The difference between those suffixes is depending on whether the speaker witnessed the event or not.
The definite past tense is used when you have personal knowledge or directly experienced something. The suffix '-di' is used and can be formed as ''-dı -du, -dü, -ti, -tı -tu, -tü'' according to the vowel harmony rules.
-di'li geçmiş zaman | Definite past tense |
---|---|
(Ben)geldim. | I came. |
(Sen)geldin. | You came. |
(O)geldi. | He/she/it came. |
(Biz)geldik. | We came. |
(Siz)geldiniz. | You came. |
(Onlar)geldiler. | They came. |
The indefinite past tense is used for reporting when the event has not been witnessed personally. The suffix '-miş' is used and can be formed as ''-muş, -mış, -müş'' according to the vowel harmony rules.
-miş'li geçmiş zaman | Indefinite past tense |
---|---|
(Ben)gelmişim. | I came. |
(Sen)gelmişsin. | You came. |
(O)gelmiş. | He/she/it came. |
(Biz)gelmişiz. | We came. |
(Siz)gelmişsiniz. | You came. |
(Onlar)gelmişler. | They came. |
The future tense shows what will happen in the future. The future tense suffixes are '-(y)ecek' (most common) or '-(y)acak' depending on the vowel harmony rules.
Gelecek zaman | The future tense |
---|---|
(Ben)geleceğim. | I will come. |
(Sen)geleceksin. | You will come. |
(O)gelecek. | He/she/it will come. |
(Biz)geleceğiz. | We will come. |
(Siz)geleceksiniz. | You will come. |
(Onlar)gelecekler. | They will come. |
1 Present continuous tense in Turkish (şimdiki zaman) | Learn present continuous tense in Turkish |
2 Present simple tense in Turkish (geniş zaman) | Learn the simple present tense in Turkish! |
3 Past tense in Turkish (geçmiş zaman) | Learn the past tense in Turkish |
4 Future tense in Turkish (gelecek zaman) | Learn the future tense in Turkish |