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

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

Oh great Thank you so much. That sounds much easier

Ben wouldn´t be necessary. When you want to say "my student", it would be (benim) öðrencim - the ending would be "m" as öðrenci ends with a vowel. When you want to say "I am" you´d use the ending "im" (or ým, um, üm - depending on vowel harmony) and since öðrenci ends with the vowel, you´d have to insert "y" in between the word and the ending - which is what you did - so it is apparent that öðrenciyim means "I am a student" and ben is not necessary.

I´ve never heard of it either until I went to the Turkish grocery store - and that´s pretty much the only place I saw it at. I also saw they had dried peppers for making stuffed peppers.

No idea if you could use other vegetables like that. I´ve never even heard of dried okra. So this is all new to me, but if anyone knows, it would be interesting to find out

Does anyone know what´s the best way to hydrate dried eggplant for dolmas? I´m seeing different ways on different websites - boiling for 30-45 min or simmering for 15 minutes and then leaving to soak overnight. Does it make any difference?

Thanks.

I´ve never made it myself so don´t know what it´s supposed to look like, but what I would do is try to maybe cube the potatoes and boil them first a bit before frying them - that´s what I do when I make hashbrowns and they turn out great

I am soooo tempted to make this dish now, it sounds like it´s a winner.

I´m glad you like them They do have nostalgic quality to them, don´t they? I absolutely love the gallery with pictures of his father too. It´s interesting about this director/photographer that he uses his family members and "normal" people in his work, as opposed to well known movie stars.

Thank you both for checking and for you responses. I´m starting to wonder if there´s an Engilsh translation at all? I saw some clips of him reading an alphabet book on http://langmedia.fivecolleges.edu/turkish/alfabe/index.html and I thought he was great Of course I have a long way to go from an alphabet book to "Büyük Gözaltý" lol.

After watching "Ýklimler" I´ve became a huge fun of Ceylan.  I just wanted to share his web site not only for info on his movies, but also for the georgous photography of Turkey and Turkish life. I think he´s amazing when it comes to conveying feelings and moods in both his movies and photographs. Enjoy

http://www.nuribilgeceylan.com/index.html