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Navigation Home page Basic Turkish  Alphabet and Pronounciation Basic Information Grammer Vowel Harmony Vowel Harmony 2 Consonant Changes Suffixes Plurals Personal Pronouns Possession 'To Be' Positive Tense 'To Be' Negative Tense Present Continuous Tense Past Continuous Tense Simple Present Positive Tense Simple Present Negative Tense Simple Past Tense Future Tense 'There is' and 'There isn't' 'Let....' 'If.....' Apparently Necessity   Simple Past Tense The past tense in Turkish is used in exactly the same way as the past tense in English, which is to express actions done, such as 'i went'. To make a sentence into the past tense, we must add the past tense suffix '-di' after the verb. This will change according to vowel harmony therefore becoming either; -di / -d / -dü / -du (If the last letter in the verb is either k/p/ç/t then the 'd' will become 't' eg -ti/-t etc due to consonant changes) examples ye = eat, yedi = ate kal = stay, kald = stayed gör = see, gördü = saw git = go, gitti = went   To then make this into a personal statement, you must add the personal suffix onto the '-di-'. These are; I ..... = '...m' You ....(singular/familiar) = '...n' He/She/It .... = -- (no personal ending) We .... = '...k' You ....(plural/polite) = '...niz' (or 'nz'/'nüz'/'nuz') They .... = '...ler' (or 'lar')   examples i came = gel-di- m  you saw = gör-dü- n she looked = bak-t  we went = git-ti-k you put = koy-du-nuz they stayed - kal-d-lar Negative Past Tense To make the past tense into a negative sentence, eg 'I did not stay', use this formula; verb + -me/ma + past suffix + personal ending   examples gel + me + di + m =gelmedim = i did not come kal + ma + d + n = kalma dn = you did not stay gör + me + di = görmedi = he did not see   (If you want to give special emphasis to the fact that you (not someone else) did something, simply add the personal pronoun before the verb, eg 'I stayed here, you didn't stay' = 'Ben burada kaldm, sen kalmadn'). Asking questions in the past tense To ask a question in the past tense, simply add the question marker '-mi?' after the sentence and change it to either '-mi/m/mü/mu' depending on vowel harmony. examples geldim mi? = did I come? gördün mü? = did you see? koymad m m? = did I not put? gitmedik mi? = did we not go?   Test Yourself! Using the following vocabulary, translate the following sentences from English to Turkish.   gör - see kal - stay anla - understand git - go iç - drink yüz - swim ev - home otel - hotel   example - we stayed - kaldk 1) i understood - ______________ 2) you (plural/polite) stayed at home - ________________ (don't forget the 'at'!) 3) did they swim? - ________________ 4) we did not go home - _________________ 5) did you (singular/familiar) stay at the hotel? - _________________ 6) did he not drink? - __________________ 7) they saw - _________________ 8) they didn't go to the hotel - _________________   Translate the following sentences from Turkish to English example - eve gitmedim - i did not go home 1)  otelde kald  - __________________ 2) içmedim mi? - __________________ 3) sen otele gittin, ben evde kaldm - ________________ 4) görmediler - ____________________ 5) yüzdünüz mü? - __________________ 6) otelde kalmadm - ________________ 7) anlad n m ? - _________________ 8) görmedi mi? - __________________   Answers! 1) i understood - anlad m 2) you (plural/polite) stayed at home - evde kald n z 3) did they swim? - yüzdüler mi? 4) we did not go home - eve gitmedik 5) did you (singular/familiar) stay at the hotel? - otelde kald n m ? 6) did he not drink? - içmedi mi? 7) they saw - gördüler 8) they didn't go to the hotel - eve gitmediler   1)  otelde kald  - he stayed in the hotel 2) içmedim mi? - did i not drink? 3) sen otele gittin, ben evde kaldm - you went to the hotel, i stayed at home 4) görmediler - they didn't see 5) yüzdünüz mü? - did you swim? 6) otelde kalmadm - i didn't stay at the hotel 7) anlad n m ? -  did you understand? 8) görmedi mi? - did he not see?     learn-turkish@hotmail.com   Useful Info Useful Words 1 Useful Words 2 (inc. Verbs) Useful Phrases Numbers Days, Months and Seasons Telling the time Other  About Me Forum Guestbook Links Search This Site E-Mail Me! Useful Verbs  gelmek - to come          gitmek - to go             kalmak - to stay                    yemek - to eat             sevmek - to love         yapmak - to do            olmak - to be      o?enmek - to learn           ö?retmek - to teach        uyumak - to sleep            istemek - to want                ya$amak - to live

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