The WinMekMak conjugation tool gives two possible translations of the present conditional.  Examples:

Gitsem/Gidersem  (both translated as ´if I go´ )

Gelsem/Gelirsem (both translated as ´if I come´ )

Is there any difference as to how you would use them?

This has confused me for a while!

To Go=

If it rains I won´t go to the football match : Eðer yaðmur yaðarsa, futbol maçýna gitmem.

To come =

If she doesn´t want to come with me, I go to the movie : Eðer benimle gelmek istemezse, sinemaya giderim. 

 Thanks Yilgun - but that is explaining the negative not the use of gitsem v gidersem

As a native, even I got confused when I read now I can say that there is not much difference. I think we use them interchangably, but in some cases one is better than other. And we use the "gidersem" version more than "gitsem" version in the daily language. I thought of some examples:

I think, "gitsem" version is for more general things. I mean general with respect to time also. Like

"Gitsem, gelir misin?" "Would you come if I go?". Here, it sounds to me like a general question. Actually there is not such a plan of going soon, but just he wants to know the answer in case he plans such a thing one day.

"Gidersem, gelir misin?" "Will you come if I go?" Here, there is a probable plan.

I don´t know if I was able to explain. Actually I have never thought in  my life about such a difference since you use the right one intrinsically in your native language

Thank you very much - it is difficult to explain your own language to others isn´t it?  So really it amounts that I can use either without being wrong!

Hi LIR, my understanding from Turkish classes I have taken is: 

gelsem = if I were to come (where this is the first time you are thinking of coming, not a regular occurance)

gelirsem =  if I come (Aorist tense) where you have come before, but are not sure if you are coming this time.

I have included a link to more "if" variations from the Manisa archive web-site.

http://web.archive.org/web/20071224054252/www.turkishlanguage.co.uk/conditional.htm

Hope this helps.

 Thank you too Henry

1- GÝDERSEM : If I go to visit her, she will be very happy and we´ll have Turkish coffee = Eðer onu ziyarete GÝDER_SEM (GÝDER ÝSEM) , çok mutlu olacak ve Türk kahvesi içeceðz.

2- GELÝRSE (like GELÝRSEM) If she come to visit me, I´ll be very happy and we´ll have Turkish coffee = Eðer o beni ziyarete GELÝR_SE (GELÝR ÝSE) , çok mutlu olacaðým ve Türk kahvesi içeceðiz.

she is not trying to understand the difference between gelmek and gitmek. she is trying to understand the difference between gitsem-gidersem, or gelsem-gelirsem, or yapsam-yaparsam, etc...

These are hard to explain.

Let me try! Sorry if I don´t manage it!!!

Gel-sem, yap-sam, git-sem  are more the "wondering" type of "if".

If I were to do this, I wonder, would you do that.

Gelsem beni sever misin? If I come will you love me?

Often it seems natural to add "acaba" to the end of a sentence like this.

But

Gel-ir-sem, yap-ar-sam, gid-er-sem are more concrete.

If I do this (and I probably will) will you do that.

Gelirsem beni karþýlar mýsýn? If I come will you meet me?

It´s becoming clearer with these explanations - thanks everyone.  I think I heard the gelsem, yapsam one referred to as ´the wish tense´ by someone - something not definitely going to happen (dilliduk said something like that)

Its just confusing the way they put it on WinMekMak - they give

ben gelsem - If I come - for the conditional tense

but

ben gelirsem - If I come - is given as aorist tense + conditional modifier

Oh and I just noticed that they do the same thing with ´-di´ and ´miþ´ but I´m not even going there at the moment - one problem at a time!

I´m glad you posed that question, I´ve been learning that conditional to lately and was wondering about the very same thing. I looked it up in the "Turkish Grammar"by Lewis and it says that you´d use the gelsem/gitsem format to express a) remote condition (gelse - if he were to come), and b) wish (gelse! - if only he would come).

I don’t know good English like you.

But I think these two concepts  are same  more or less according to English.These are special sentences in Turkish.

Turkish and English are different languages.

I am faced with an impossible choice.

But if a person become a novelist,translator, interpreter or teacher they can find the difference easily.

I think there is no meaningful difference among  gitsem-gidersem, or gelsem-gelirsem, or yapsam-yaparsam, etc...in Turkish.

Maybe they are same according to English grammar.

Examples=

GÝDERSEM :

If I would like to go to my aunt,  she will give me a gift = If  I can go to my my aunt,  she will give me a gift = If I went to my aunt,  I would get a gift = If I were to go to my aunt,  she would  give a gift= If only I go to my aunt,  she will give a gift =  Eðer halama gidersem, o bana bir hediye verecek.

GÝTSEM:

If I go to my aunt,  she will give me a gift = Halama gitsem, o bana bir hediye verecek.

Thank you Yilgun - I think I understand it now

I recall we had a similar topic a year ago.

Thanks si++ - that´s a pretty comprehensive explanation!  I was away from TC at that time - I will copy and save it with my notes and have a good look later.

Then, Henry, gidersem = passive voice while gitsem = active voice?

Passive verb gidersem, active verb gitsem. Deðilme?

If I "were to come´

If I ´come´

When I learned English grammar as a child - lo those mqany, many years ago, we learned a little sing song poem containing the ´verbs of being´ also known as passive verbs.

"Were" coupled with any other verb is passive. (Were coming)

gidersem is conditional in the aorist tense (-r present tense) git(d)-er-se-m 

gitsem is just verb stem + conditional ending (in one of the books I´m using it was referred to as conditional base)

Passive voice is formed by adding - il (or -l or -in) so for gitmek passive voice is gidilmek.

It is not necessarily so that in English "were" + any other verb is passive - actually in the example you gave, "were" is an auxillary verb to an active verb - in English the verb "to be" + past participle forms the passive voice - so theoretically your example in passive voice would be "were come" but that´s incorrect either because "come" is an intransitive verb and does not have a passive voice.

I hope I didn´t confuse you with this post - I just meant to clarify things a bit.

Evet Melek bende tanimiyordum hiç bir þey deðil. Tskrlr. Çok unutum þimdi. 40 sene eskiden Turkiyede oturdum ama kimse yok burasi var benim Turkçele konuþyor.

Ed

Iskenderunli 

My comment would be:

I think nowadays people are using "gitsem" in a different way, but if I was asked to translate;

If I were to come, would you meet me?

I would have translated it as;

Gelecek olsam, benimle .....

Likewise... if you were to ask me.. bana soracak olursan....

Bu tif I were to translate these into English:

Gelsem, benimle buluþsur musun?

If I come, will you meet me?

Bana sorsan... If you ask me..

So I think there is a difference, but it is just that less people are using the proper form, and this started sounding okay.

it seems like relationship between chicken and egg. I think all explains true but best explain has belonged to Yýlgun7.

 I don´t agree with you that it is a chicken egg situation here.. It is actually quite simple:

verb root + -se/-sa + tense  mostly implies wish

I wish he would come early today - Keþke bugün erken gelse.

I wish he listened to me - Keþke beni dinleseydi.

Only if she has listened to me - Beni bir dinleseymiþ

If he were to listen to me - Beni dinleyecek olsaydý..

verb root + tense + -se/sa always is a conditional, sometimes wish form is also used as a conditional:

If I come early, we can go to cinema - Eðer erken gelirsem, sinemaya gidebiliriz.

If you will not listen to me, I will stop talking... Eðer beni dinlemeyeceksen, konuþmayý býrakacaðým.

If you came early, we could have gone to cinema - Eðer erken gelseydin, sinemaya giderdik.

If he came early, it is all because I let him go - Eðer erken geldiyse, sadece ben izin verdiðim için.

If you have listened to me at that time, you wouldn´t have been in trouble now.. o zaman beni dinleseydin, þimdi sýkýntýda olmayacaktýn.

If he has listened to us, he will never speak to me again.. (Eðer) bizi dinlemiþse / dediklerimizi duymuþsa, bir daha benimle hiç konuþmaz. 

I hope I haven´t confused you.

Some of the confusion may come from trying to compare Turkish and English. My understanding is that -sa and -say are Conditional Markers and not actually verb tenses; that is, they indicate a conditional (or wish)  tone to the sentence instead of a specific tense or time event. That is why examples given in the forum are from a range of tenses. 

Anyway, for those of you who can´t get enough of the linguistic details, you may want to check out the following link in Google Book Search

http://books.google.com/books?id=ChbBlU9VtIwC&pg=PA419&lpg=PA419&dq=conditional+in+turkish&source=bl&ots=uOJjWRD2Si&sig=rmswBuyw3ErEzBMfKu3mxLhSqlo&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result