Im wondering if someone could help me with a quick grammer question, Im trying to get to grips with the regular past tense, -di and just had a query about the vowel harmony rule, namely the ´y´ buffer used if the word ends in a vowel, is this rule only applied to nouns and adjectives etc and not applied to vowels? Do we not use the ´y´ buffer in vowels when using the -di past tense? and if so, is it only in the regular past tense? it was only while studying the examples I noticed that it wasnt used in this particular case.

Any help would be fantastic

çok teþekkürler

would this help you a bit?

http://www.turkishclass.com/turkish_lesson_67

http://www.turkishclass.com/turkish_lesson_75

Hi yakamozzz, thank you, yes these are the 2 lessons Im studying at the moment, and was actually something I noticed in them that made me wonder about the ´y´ buffer in nouns

He was good. --> Ýyiydi.

I was successful. --> Baþarýlýydým

both of these take the ´y´ buffer when the ´to be´ past tense regular is added, I understand why this is and I have learnt it and know to use it, however when I was studying further down the lesson page I noticed this

The word beklemek is not taking the ´y´ buffer before -di is added, and Im just wondering is this because the word is a verb? Do verbs not take the ´y´ buffer in the regular past tense? I just want to make sure I have everything in this section right, before practicing it for a bit and then moving on to the next section, so if anyone could help Id be very grateful.

Çok teþekkürler herkes

hmmmmmm....i only know that when you say bekl+i+y+or+um...then you can´t put "i" and "o" right next to each other...bekl+e+di+m...there won´t be 2 vowels right next to each other...no "y" needed...coz "d" is in between...  but why - beats me...

 Everytime I think Im actually getting somewhere with my studies and I think Im starting to understand, something comes along to confuse me again!! I just dont understand why nouns etc ending in a vowel take the ´y´ buffer before -di but verbs that end in vowels dont............ maybe its just one of those things, that it is this way just because it is

maybe they are that way just because of their pronounciation...coz seems like it makes easyer to SAY them... 

 Yes you could be right there yakamozzz, it could be because of the pronounciation, or maybe putting the ´y´ in verbs changes the meaning or something, ben gercekten bilmiyorum

i think if Y would change the meaning of the entire word, then this Y would be inside the word root itself...so i don´t think it does change the meaning...it must be smth else...

 I´m not an expert, but I think that the past tense of "to be" and the past tense of any other verb are two distinct (although similar) things. Or, at least, they can be seen as two distinct things. For example, at the Manisa Turkish site they are described in two separate chapters:

"To be" past form (applied to nouns/adjectives): -(y)di suffix

http://turkishlanguage.co.uk/tobepos.htm#article_1

"Past tense" (applied to verbs): -di suffix

http://turkishlanguage.co.uk/pasttense.htm

Also, in G.L. Lewis´ "Turkish Grammar" both topics are described separately.

So, answering ally´s question - sentences like "(somebody) was (noun/adjective)" are translated with "-(y)di" suffix, and sentences like "(somebody) (verb-in-the-past-tense)" are translated with "-di" suffix.

 Yea I think your right. maybe it is to do with pronounciation, I did put some verbs ending in vowels through WinMekMak to check and it didnt put the ´y´ buffer in, so i think I will just take it as a general rule that verbs dont take a ´y´ buffer when using -di