Merhabalar!

I know that both English and Turkish have a present progressive tense (the -yor- tense in Turkish ex: gidiyorum) and a present simple (the -r- tense in Turkish ex: giderim).

In Turkish, does this similarity also occur in the past tense? Is there a simple, or definite, past and a past progressive? If so, could you please give me examples?

Teþekkür ederim!

yest there is also in turkish language past progresive tense.

such as sen geldiðinde ben yatýyordum.ý was sleeping when you came.

but in your first sample gidiyorum and giderim is different.

gidiyorum is ý am going giderim ý would go.it s bit different .ý hope it s clear for you if it isnt pls inform me

Hmm...that does help a bit. Thanks!

The way my teacher explained the 2 present tenses though was like this:

Ben okula gidiyorum. = I am going to school. (as in, right now)

Ben her gün okula giderim. = I go to school everyday.

Did I understand this wrong? That is possible, because my teacher only speaks broken versions of the two languages that I fluently speak.

This is from the book I´m using "Teach Yourself Turkish" - I hope it´ll clarify things a bit.

You use the present continuous tense (-iyor) for:

- describing something happening now (Futbol oynuyorlar. - They are playing football.)

- stating an unchanging fact (Sigara kullanmýyorum. - I don´t smoke.)

- describing a habitual or repeated action (Sýl sýk plaja gidiyorum. - I often go to the beach.)

- describing something that will happen soon (Bu akþam geliyorum. - I´m coming this evening.)

You use the -r (aorist) present tense in the following cases:

- making promises (Sana dondurma alýrým. - I´ll buy you an ice-cream)

- saying you´re willing to do something (Yardým ederim. - I´ll help.)

- saying you intend to do something (Yarýn gelirim. - I´ll come tomorrow.)

- requesting someone to do something (Kapýyý açar mýsýnýz? - Would you open the door?)

- offering something to someone (Çay içer misiniz? - Would you like to drink some tea?)

- set phrases, such as Teþekkür ederim, tebrik ederim, etc.

- telling stories or jokes (Üç erkek bara girerler .... - Three men go into a pub...)

- expressing possibility or hope (Belki gelir. - Maybe he´ll come.)

- describing an unchanging fact (Su 0 C altýnda donar. Water freezes below 0 degrees.)

- describing an habitual or repeated action (Sýk sýk plaja giderim. - I often go to the beach.)

I´m not sure about the past tense, I haven´t gotten that far yet

And "gidiyordu" isn´t a past progressive?

For example: Mehmet´e gördüðümde, okula gidiyordu.

I found some info in the book for the past tenses too.  It doesn´t say much about past continuous. Only that you add the past fom of the verb to be and it gives a couple of examples:

Saat sekizde ne yapýyordun? What were you doing at 8 o´clock?

Ders çalýþýyordum. I was studying.

For the past aorist it says that, again, you add the past form of "to be". What you use that tense for though is to say what you used to do, for example:

Araba sürerdim. I used to drive.

Pazar günü gelirdin. You used to come on Sunday.

Þikayet etmezdiniz. You didn´t use to complain.

By the way, thanks for posting that question. I learned something too while looking for the answer

I think also the ´used to´ form can also mean ´would´

So ´I used to come´  is the same constuction (3rd person singular present simple tense+personal ending past tense) as ´I would come´   gelirdim.