The Turkish language · Chapter 14
Plans, habits and offers
How -ecek says what will happen, and how the aorist says what usually happens and makes offers and promises.
14.1 -ecek: what will happen
-(y)AcAk says what will happen: what someone plans to do, or what the speaker expects. It is -ecek or -acak, and -yecek or -yacak after a vowel.
| Stem | Future |
|---|---|
| gel-, come | gelecek, will come |
| yap-, do | yapacak, will do |
| oku-, read | okuyacak, will read |
| bekle-, wait | bekleyecek, will wait |
| git-, go | gidecek, will go |
| et-, do | edecek, will do |
git- and et- soften their t to d before the vowel, as they do before -(I)yor: gidiyor, gidecek. And de-, "say", and ye-, "eat", change their e to i, as in diyor and yiyor: diyecek, yiyecek.
Its personal endings are the ones for "I am" and "you are". Before an ending that starts with a vowel, its last k softens to ğ: geleceğim, geleceğiz.
| Person | gel-, come | yap-, do |
|---|---|---|
| ben | geleceğim | yapacağım |
| sen | geleceksin | yapacaksın |
| o | gelecek | yapacak |
| biz | geleceğiz | yapacağız |
| siz | geleceksiniz | yapacaksınız |
| onlar | gelecekler | yapacaklar |
FUT, under it in the examples, marks the future.
Yarın İzmir'e gideceğim.
Bu akşam ne yapacaksın?
Ayşe bize gelecek.
Yarın yağmur yağacak.
In quick speech the future is worn down: geleceğim is often heard as "gelicem", and yapacağım as "yapıcam". It is written in full.
-(I)yor tells a plan too, one already made, as English "I'm going" does: Yarın Ankara'ya gidiyorum. -(y)AcAk is the future proper: what is decided, expected or foreseen.
A noun can't take -(y)AcAk. "Will be" is olmak, "to be" or "to become", in the future:
Yarın evde olacağım.
Ali doktor olacak.
14.2 Not, and asking: gelmeyecek, gelecek mi?
"Not" is -mA before -(y)AcAk. Since -mA ends in a vowel, the y comes in after it: gelmeyecek, "won't come", yapmayacağım, "I won't do it".
mI comes after -(y)AcAk and takes the personal ending, as it does after -(I)yor: Gelecek misin?, "Are you coming?", Gelecek misiniz?
Emre gelecek mi?
Yarın evde olacak mısın?
Otobüs ne zaman kalkacak?
Bir daha yapmayacağım.
kalkmak is "to get up", and also what buses, trains and planes do when they leave.
14.3 The aorist: habits and what is generally so
Turkish has one more tense for the present and the future. Grammars of Turkish call it the aorist, and Turkish ones geniş zaman, "the broad tense", since it is tied to no one time. It says what usually happens, what someone does as a rule, and what is so in general. AOR, under it in the examples, marks it.
It is -r, -Ar or -Ir, and the verb's stem decides which:
| The stem | The aorist | Verbs |
|---|---|---|
| ends in a vowel | -r | oku-, okur; bekle-, bekler; anla-, anlar |
| has one syllable and ends in a consonant | -Ar | yap-, yapar; iç-, içer; sev-, sever; git-, gider |
| has more than one syllable and ends in a consonant | -Ir | çalış-, çalışır; konuş-, konuşur; otur-, oturur; öğren-, öğrenir |
Thirteen verbs of one syllable take -Ir all the same. They are among the most common verbs in the language, so they are worth learning as a list:
| Stem | Aorist | Stem | Aorist |
|---|---|---|---|
| al-, take | alır | kal-, stay | kalır |
| bil-, know | bilir | ol-, be | olur |
| bul-, find | bulur | öl-, die | ölür |
| dur-, stop | durur | san-, suppose | sanır |
| gel-, come | gelir | var-, arrive | varır |
| gör-, see | görür | ver-, give | verir |
| vur-, hit | vurur |
The personal endings are again the ones for "I am" and "you are":
| Person | yap-, do | gel-, come |
|---|---|---|
| ben | yaparım | gelirim |
| sen | yaparsın | gelirsin |
| o | yapar | gelir |
| biz | yaparız | geliriz |
| siz | yaparsınız | gelirsiniz |
| onlar | yaparlar | gelirler |
Her sabah çay içerim.
Ali çok kitap okur.
Kediler balık sever.
Bu otobüs merkeze gider mi?
Ne iş yaparsınız?
mI takes the personal ending after the aorist, as after -(I)yor: Gider mi?, Gelir misin?
-(I)yor and the aorist can both be English "I do". Everyday speech often uses -(I)yor for habits, for what someone does these days: Her gün çalışıyorum, "I work every day". The aorist makes it a fact about someone, true in general and not only now: Ali çok kitap okur is the kind of person Ali is.
Said of one coming event, the aorist is a guess: what the speaker expects, without the certainty of -(y)AcAk.
Ali birazdan gelir.
Ali birazdan gelecek says the speaker knows he is coming. Ali birazdan gelir is a guess, and often meant to reassure: he'll turn up.
14.4 Offers and promises: Yardım ederim
Said of what you are about to do, the aorist is an offer or a promise: what you are willing to do, rather than what you have planned.
Yardım ederim.
Ben yaparım.
Seni yarın ararım.
Görüşürüz.
Teşekkür ederim, "thank you", is a verb of the same kind as yardım etmek, in the aorist: teşekkür, "thanks", and ederim, "I do".
The future would make these plans. Seni yarın arayacağım is "I'm going to call you tomorrow", a thing decided; Seni yarın ararım is "I'll call you tomorrow", said as you part, a promise.
Asked as a question, the aorist offers something, or asks someone to do something, much as English "would you...?" does:
Çay içer misiniz?
Kapıyı açar mısın?
Bana yardım eder misin?
14.5 Its negative: -mez
The aorist's negative is -mAz: gelmez, "doesn't come", yapmaz, "doesn't do". It has no exceptions: every verb takes -mAz, whichever positive ending it has. With "I" and "we" it loses its z: gelmem, "I don't come", gelmeyiz, "we don't come". NEG.AOR, in the examples, marks it.
| Person | gel-, come | yap-, do |
|---|---|---|
| ben | gelmem | yapmam |
| sen | gelmezsin | yapmazsın |
| o | gelmez | yapmaz |
| biz | gelmeyiz | yapmayız |
| siz | gelmezsiniz | yapmazsınız |
| onlar | gelmezler | yapmazlar |
Mehmet et yemez.
Ben kahve içmem.
Kimseye söylemem.
The last is a promise, the negative of an offer. Two forms of olmak are used so often they are words of their own: olur, "it happens", is "all right", "OK"; olmaz, "it doesn't happen", is "no way", or "that won't do".
Olmaz!
As a question, the negative is an invitation, as English "won't you...?" is:
Bir çay daha içmez misiniz?
14.6 Used to: giderdik
The past ending -DI goes after these tenses too, as it goes after -(I)yor in geliyordu. After the aorist it makes "used to": giderdik, "we used to go". The aorist says what happens as a rule, and -DI puts the rule in the past.
| Person | git-, go | gel-, come |
|---|---|---|
| ben | giderdim | gelirdim |
| sen | giderdin | gelirdin |
| o | giderdi | gelirdi |
| biz | giderdik | gelirdik |
| siz | giderdiniz | gelirdiniz |
| onlar | giderlerdi | gelirlerdi |
Eskiden her yaz İzmir'e giderdik.
Dedem her sabah gazete okurdu.
The negative is -mAz with -DI, and the z stays: içmezdim, "I didn't use to drink".
Eskiden kahve içmezdim.
After -(y)AcAk, -DI makes "was going to", often of a plan that came to nothing: gidecektik, "we were going to go". The k of -(y)AcAk doesn't soften here, since -DI starts with a consonant, and it hardens -DI to -tI.
Dün sinemaya gidecektik.
14.7 Plans for the weekend
Emre asks Zeynep about her weekend. Her plans are in -(y)AcAk; her guesses, and his offer, in the aorist:
Hafta sonu ne yapacaksın?
Yarın İzmir'e gideceğim. Annem orada oturuyor.
Ne zaman döneceksin?
Bilmiyorum. Herhalde bütün hafta sonu orada kalırım.
Kediye ben bakarım.
Çok sağ ol! Anahtarı bu akşam getiririm.
herhalde, "probably", goes naturally with the aorist's guess. bakmak with -(y)A is "to look at", and also "to look after". Sağ ol, "be well", is "thanks" between friends.
14.8 Five tenses side by side
The five tenses, on one verb:
| Ending | gel-, come | Says |
|---|---|---|
| -(I)yor | geliyor | is coming: now, or these days, or a plan |
| -DI | geldi | came, has come: seen, or known for sure |
| -mIş | gelmiş | came, has come: heard, or worked out |
| -(y)AcAk | gelecek | will come, is going to come |
| -(A/I)r | gelir | comes, as a rule; will come, offered or promised |
Four of them say "not" with -mA before the tense; the aorist has -mAz of its own. Four of them put the personal ending on mI in a question: Geliyor musun?, Gelecek misin?. -DI keeps its ending on the verb: Geldin mi?