Tenses

There are 5 fundamental tenses in Turkish. These are:

1. Present simple tense (Geniş zaman)

2. Present continuous tense (Şimdiki zaman)

3. Future tense (Gelecek zaman)

4. Past tense with -di (-di'li geçmiş zaman) --> Regular past tense

5. Past tense with -miş (-miş'li geçmiş zaman) --> Also called the story past tense

Present simple tense (Geniş zaman)

The present simple tense is used, very much ike the one in English:

• To make general statements

  • Water boils at 100 degrees. --> Su 100 derecede kaynar.

• To mention things you do regularly

  • I run every morning. --> Her sabah koşarım.

Present simple tense is used only for verbs, it is not meaningful for nouns and adjectives.

Present simple tense of a verb is constructed this way:

verb root + ir or er + present tense to be

The suffix for constructing the present simple tense of a verb is not always the same. The suffix is sometimes -ir, sometimes -er. This is the only tense with this irregularity, but there are certain rules that will tell you which one to choose most of the time. The rules that will help you choose which one of -ir or -er to use as suffix are as follows:

1. If the verb ends with a vowel, the vowel of the suffix falls and you add only -r.

   • ara-r --> arar --> he calls

   • oku-r --> okur --> he reads

2. If the verb has more than one syllable, use -ir

   • kapat-ir --> kapatır --> he closes

   • konuş-ir --> konuşur --> he talks

3. If the verb has only one syllable:

   1. If the vowel of this syllable is 'a' or 'e' and if the verb ends with 'l', 'n' or 'r' then use -ir

      • gel-ir --> gelir --> he comes

      • ver-ir --> verir --> he gives

   2. Use -er for the other single syllable cases

      • git-er --> gider --> he goes

      • koş-ar --> koşar --> he runs

Now, let's look at how the present simple tense is used with different personal pronouns:

The negative of present simple tense is a little different than just adding the negative-making suffix -me. Construction of negatives of present simple tense is given in the table below. The negative-making suffix becomes -mez except for I and we. Moreover, when negative suffix is used, the present simple tense suffix is not used.

Present simple tense is the most irregular tense in Turkish, it's not simple as the name implies.