hi

I am studying turkısh in a book called teach yourself turkish and here you can see a list of when to use the iyor present and when to use the r present tense but i needed to have a simpler idea of that..

can we use the iyor present tense like when we use the present continuous in englısh? and when we use the present in englısh we use the r present tense in turkısh or in turkısh it´s different?

Teach yourself Turkish by Pollard & Pollard is a good book for beginners in my opinion. I think their list for when to use ´iyor´ is about as simple as it can be.

- describing something happening now 

- stating an unchanging fact

- describing a habitual or repeated action

- describing something that will happen soon

You can see from 2 of their examples that simple present tense in English can become present continuous tense in Turkish

I often go to the beach = Sık sık plaja gidiyorum.

I don´t smoke = Sigara kullanmıyorum.

And even the much used ´I love you´ becomes ´seni seviyorum´.

You have to start thinking like a Turk rather than trying to make literal translations. In the last example, because the Turk is expressing his love, and it is still continuing now, they use the ´iyor´ tense, whereas the literal tense matching translation would be ´seni severim´ (which if used would convey a less whole-hearted love)

Obviously a lot of things that are happening now can be directly translated to present continuous tense. 

Aorist or simple present tense is used

- in requests and offers

- expressing wishes (hopes) and promises

- describing facts

- describing habitual or repeated actions

- on signs or instructions eg.

no smoking = sigara içilmez

(note English present continuous - Turkish simple present tense)

no entry = girilmez

Unfortunately you will not always be able to match tenses simply by translating ´ing´ to ´iyor´, but if you learn to match the tense to the purposes listed it will help.

Turks will allow for your errors, so don´t worry too much about always being grammatically correct. Turkish street language doesn´t always follow the rules either.