Telling, asking and being able

15.1 Telling: the bare stem, and -in to be polite

To tell someone you know well to do something, say the verb's stem with nothing on it: Gel!, "Come!", Bak!, "Look!", Otur!, "Sit down!".

"Don't" is -mA on the stem: Gelme!, "Don't come!"

The bare stem is for family, friends and children. To someone you call siz, add -(y)In: gelin, oturun, bakın, and after a vowel, bekleyin, "wait". It is also how you tell more than one person, whoever they are. "Don't" is -mA before it: gelmeyin. POL, in the examples, marks it.

A longer form, -(y)InIz, is more formal still. It is the form of signs, notices and announcements, and of shop doors, which say İtiniz, "push", and Çekiniz, "pull".

One polite form is heard everywhere: buyurun, from buyurmak, "to be so kind". It is said holding something out, "here you are"; at the door, "come in"; and by a shopkeeper or a waiter, "yes, what can I get you?".

15.2 Asking politely: lütfen, and -ir misiniz?

lütfen, "please", goes at the start or at the end. After the name of a thing, it is how you order or ask for something:

Politer than any command is a question in the aorist, as English "would you...?" is. To someone you call siz, that is -(A/I)r mIsInIz?: açar mısınız?, konuşur musunuz?

Bakar mısınız?, "would you look?", is how you call a waiter, or catch the eye of someone behind a counter.

Many of the polite words of everyday Turkish are verbs in the aorist, or told with -(y)In:

Sağ ol is the bare stem, for a friend; sağ olun is for anyone else.

15.3 -ebil: can

-(y)Abil says "can": -ebil or -abil, and -yebil or -yabil after a vowel. Only its first vowel follows harmony; the rest is bil-, "know", which it once was. It makes a new stem, and a tense goes after it, most often the aorist. Since bil- is one of the verbs that take -Ir, that is always -ebilir or -abilir: gelebilir, "can come". "can", in the examples, glosses it.

It says what someone is able to do, and asks if something is allowed:

Turkish sits down "to" a place, with -(y)A: buraya oturmak. And it "takes" what English "has": bir çay almak, "to have a tea".

-(y)Abilir also says what may happen, as English "might" does. With -mA before it, it is "might not":

Other tenses go after it too. With -DI it says what someone managed to do: yapabildim, "I managed it". With -(y)AcAk, what they will be able to do: yapabileceğim, "I'll be able to do it".

Asked of someone you call siz, -(y)Abilir misiniz? is the politest way to ask for something. From blunt to polite:

15.4 -eme: can't

"Can't" isn't -(y)Abil with -mA. It has an ending of its own, -(y)AmA: -eme or -ama, and -yeme or -yama after a vowel. "cannot", in the examples, glosses it.

A tense follows it as it follows -mA, "not". In the aorist that is -z, what -mAz keeps after its -mA, and like -mAz it drops its z with "I" and "we": yapamam, "I can't", yapamayız, "we can't". Before -(I)yor its last vowel goes and the I of -(I)yor takes its place, as -mA's does: yapamıyorum, gelemiyorum.

The aorist says what someone can't do as a rule, or won't be able to: Ali yüzemez, he never learned. -(I)yor says what they can't do now: the key is somewhere, but not here.

Two forms are easily mixed up. Gelemez, "he can't come", has -(y)AmA. Gelmeyebilir, "he might not come", has -mA and then -(y)Abil.

15.5 Let's: -elim

-(y)AlIm says "let's": gidelim, "let's go", yapalım, "let's do it", and with y after a vowel, bekleyelim, "let's wait". With mI it asks "shall we?": Gidelim mi? "Let's not" has -mA before it: gitmeyelim. Hadi, "come on", often comes first.

Bakalım, "let's look", is said while waiting to find out how something will turn out.

The same ending for "I", -(y)AyIm, says "let me". It offers to do something, or says what you are about to do. "let.me", in the examples, glosses it.

With mI, it asks "shall I?": Kapıyı açayım mı?, "Shall I open the door?"

15.6 Let him, may it: -sin

-sIn on a stem says what someone else is to do: gelsin, "let him come", or "have her come". It has four vowels, -sin, -sın, -sun, -sün, and -sInlAr for "they": gelsinler. "let", in the examples, glosses it. Its negative has -mA before it, gelmesin, and with mI it asks "should he?": Gelsin mi?

It also makes wishes, "may it be", "may it come". Some are said every day, at set moments, and have no English to match:

15.7 At a café

Ayşe and Ali sit down at a café, and the waiter comes over:

A Turkish coffee is made with its sugar in the pot, so the waiter asks first: sade, "plain", orta, "medium", or şekerli, "sweet". Ben bir çay alayım, "let me have a tea", is the everyday way to order. And the bill is something friends argue over.