A Clear Breakdown Of The Turkish Past Tense With Examples
Author
Turkish uses two completely different tenses to talk about the past.
The tense you choose depends entirely on how you got your information.
You must decide if you witnessed the event yourself or if you heard about it from someone else.
This specific distinction is one of the most unique features of the Turkish language.
I’ll break down both Turkish past tenses below so you can use them correctly in everyday conversation.
Table of contents:
The definite past tense (-di)
The definite past tense is used for events you personally witnessed or experienced.
You also use this tense to talk about historical facts that are absolutely certain.
If you saw it happen, or if you did it yourself, you’ll use the definite past tense.
The base suffix for this tense is -di.
Due to Turkish vowel harmony, this suffix can change to -dı, -dü, or -du depending on the last vowel of the verb root.
Turkish also has a rule called consonant mutation.
If a verb root ends in a hard consonant (ç, f, h, k, p, s, ş, t), the letter “d” in our suffix changes to a “t”.
This means your suffix becomes -ti, -tı, -tü, or -tu.
Here’s a conjugation table for the verb gelmek (to come) in the definite past tense.
| Pronoun | Turkish Conjugation | English Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Ben (I) | geldim | I came |
| Sen (You) | geldin | You came |
| O (He/She/It) | geldi | He/She/It came |
| Biz (We) | geldik | We came |
| Siz (You plural/formal) | geldiniz | You came |
| Onlar (They) | geldiler | They came |
Here are some examples of the definite past tense in action.
Dün sinemaya gittim.
Akşam yemeğini çok geç yedik.
Atatürk, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti’ni 1923’te kurdu.
The indefinite past tense (-miş)
The indefinite past tense is used for hearsay, gossip, and things you didn’t see with your own eyes.
It’s also used for inferences or things you realized after the fact.
If a friend tells you a story about someone else, you’ll retell that story using this tense.
The base suffix for the indefinite past tense is -miş.
Depending on vowel harmony, this changes to -mış, -müş, or -muş.
Because the suffix starts with the letter “m”, you don’t have to worry about consonant mutation here.
Here’s a conjugation table for the verb gelmek (to come) in the indefinite past tense.
| Pronoun | Turkish Conjugation | English Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Ben (I) | gelmişim | I came (apparently / I realized) |
| Sen (You) | gelmişsin | You came (I heard / I see) |
| O (He/She/It) | gelmiş | He/She/It came (apparently / I heard) |
| Biz (We) | gelmişiz | We came (apparently / I realized) |
| Siz (You plural/formal) | gelmişsiniz | You came (I heard / I see) |
| Onlar (They) | gelmişler | They came (apparently / I heard) |
Here are some examples showing how the indefinite past tense provides context.
Ayşe İstanbul’a taşınmış.
Olamaz, kanepede uyuyakalmışım!
Dün gece çok yağmur yağmış.
Comparing both past tenses
The easiest way to understand the difference is to look at the exact same sentence using both tenses.
Let’s look at a simple sentence about someone named Ahmet.
Ahmet eve geldi.
Ahmet eve gelmiş.
In the first sentence, you saw Ahmet walk through the front door with your own eyes.
In the second sentence, you either saw his shoes in the hallway and realized he was home, or someone else told you that he arrived.
Understanding this nuance is essential for mastering the past tense in Turkish.
