Conjugation › Turkish › Gerekmek
Turkish · Verb Tables · Advanced
gerekmek means "to be necessary / must" in Turkish. Present continuous: ben —, sen —, o gerekiyor, biz —, siz —, onlar —. Below: all 36 tenses we teach, with examples.
Formed with -Iyor on the stem; used for actions happening right now and, very commonly in speech, for near-future plans.
| ben | — |
| sen | — |
| o | gerekiyor |
| biz | — |
| siz | — |
| onlar | — |
Formed with -Ir/-Ar (harmony-governed, with a closed list of irregular monosyllabic verbs like gelmek taking -ir instead of the expected -er); used for habits, general truths, and polite offers/requests.
| ben | — |
| sen | — |
| o | gerekir |
| biz | — |
| siz | — |
| onlar | — |
Formed with -DI; used for events the speaker personally witnessed, did, or is certain of.
| ben | — |
| sen | — |
| o | gerekti |
| biz | — |
| siz | — |
| onlar | — |
Formed with -mIş; used for events learned secondhand, inferred from evidence, or realized with surprise — Turkish grammatically marks this evidential distinction from the witnessed past.
| ben | — |
| sen | — |
| o | gerekmiş |
| biz | — |
| siz | — |
| onlar | — |
Formed with -EcEk; a final k softens to ğ before the vowel-initial 1st-person endings (geleceğim, geleceğiz).
| ben | — |
| sen | — |
| o | gerekecek |
| biz | — |
| siz | — |
| onlar | — |
The present continuous stem plus the past copula -DI ("was ...ing"); the plural marker attaches before -DI, so the 3rd-person plural is geliyorlardı, not geliyordular.
| ben | — |
| sen | — |
| o | gerekiyordu |
| biz | — |
| siz | — |
| onlar | — |
The present continuous stem plus -mIş instead of -DI ("was apparently ...ing"); mostly used in storytelling or hearsay narration, less common than the witnessed form.
| ben | — |
| sen | — |
| o | gerekiyormuş |
| biz | — |
| siz | — |
| onlar | — |
The aorist stem plus the past copula -DI; equivalent to English "used to" or a repeated past action.
| ben | — |
| sen | — |
| o | gerekirdi |
| biz | — |
| siz | — |
| onlar | — |
The aorist stem plus -mIş instead of -DI ("apparently used to"); rare, mostly literary or folk-narrative in tone.
| ben | — |
| sen | — |
| o | gerekirmiş |
| biz | — |
| siz | — |
| onlar | — |
The simple past -DI doubled with a second, bound -DI (geldiydim); colloquial and regional, used for emphatic or reminiscent narration rather than everyday neutral speech.
| ben | — |
| sen | — |
| o | gerektiydi |
| biz | — |
| siz | — |
| onlar | — |
The reported past -mIş plus the past copula -DI ("had done"); note that -miş devoices the following d to t: gelmişti, not gelmişdi.
| ben | — |
| sen | — |
| o | gerekmişti |
| biz | — |
| siz | — |
| onlar | — |
The reported past -mIş doubled with -mIş again ("apparently had done"); rare, used mainly in folk tales and secondhand storytelling.
| ben | — |
| sen | — |
| o | gerekmişmiş |
| biz | — |
| siz | — |
| onlar | — |
The future stem plus the past copula -DI ("was going to"); note the devoicing of d to t after the voiceless k: gelecekti, not gelecekdi.
| ben | — |
| sen | — |
| o | gerekecekti |
| biz | — |
| siz | — |
| onlar | — |
The future stem plus -mIş instead of -DI ("apparently was going to"); rare and mostly literary.
| ben | — |
| sen | — |
| o | gerekecekmiş |
| biz | — |
| siz | — |
| onlar | — |
Formed with -mEli; the everyday way to say "must" or "should" as a single verb form (an alternative to the periphrastic gerek/lazım + infinitive).
| ben | — |
| sen | — |
| o | gerekmeli |
| biz | — |
| siz | — |
| onlar | — |
-mEli plus the past copula -DI ("should have ... [but didn't]"); a common way to express regret about an unmet obligation.
| ben | — |
| sen | — |
| o | gerekmeliydi |
| biz | — |
| siz | — |
| onlar | — |
-mEli plus -mIş instead of -DI ("apparently should"); rare, used to relay someone else's judgment of an obligation.
| ben | — |
| sen | — |
| o | gerekmeliymiş |
| biz | — |
| siz | — |
| onlar | — |
Formed with -(y)E; in everyday speech it survives mainly in the 1st person (geleyim "let me come", gelelim "let's come") — the 2nd/3rd-person forms are literary or fossilized in blessings and curses.
| ben | — |
| sen | — |
| o | gereke |
| biz | — |
| siz | — |
| onlar | — |
Formed with -sE; used as a standalone wish, usually with keşke ("if only"), and as the subordinate "if"-clause of any conditional sentence (gelirse gel — "come if you're coming"). Turkish has no separate subjunctive mood; -sE and its compounds cover doubt, hypothesis and wish.
| ben | — |
| sen | — |
| o | gerekse |
| biz | — |
| siz | — |
| onlar | — |
-sE plus the past copula -DI; the normal way to express an unreal past condition or an unfulfilled wish about the past ("if only he had come", "if he had come, ...") — by far the most common of the wish-mood compounds.
| ben | — |
| sen | — |
| o | gerekseydi |
| biz | — |
| siz | — |
| onlar | — |
-sE plus -mIş instead of -DI ("apparently, if he had..."); rare, mostly colloquial storytelling.
| ben | — |
| sen | — |
| o | gerekseymiş |
| biz | — |
| siz | — |
| onlar | — |
No 1st-person forms exist ("let's" is covered by the optative -(y)Elim instead); 2nd singular is the bare stem, 2nd plural has an informal -(y)In and a more polite/formal -(y)InIz (both glossed together here).
| ben | — |
| sen | — |
| o | gereksin |
| biz | — |
| siz | — |
| onlar | — |
The negative infix -mE- is inserted right before the person ending; otherwise identical in structure to the affirmative.
| ben | — |
| sen | — |
| o | gerekmesin |
| biz | — |
| siz | — |
| onlar | — |
-mek/-mak; the dictionary/citation form, also used as a verbal noun in object position (gelmek istiyorum "I want to come").
| gerekmek |
-mE and -Iş both turn the verb into a plain noun ("the coming/the act of coming"); -Iş often leans towards "the way of doing" or a one-off event.
| gerekme / gerekiş |
-En makes an adjectival participle referring to the doer, the basis of every subject relative clause ("the man who comes/is coming").
| gereken |
-DIk plus a possessive suffix marks the subject of a non-subject relative clause or nominalized past clause ("that I/you/he came"); it does not itself mean past tense — context and the main verb supply the time.
| ben | — |
| sen | — |
| o | gerektiği |
| biz | — |
| siz | — |
| onlar | — |
-EcEk plus a possessive suffix nominalizes a future/prospective clause ("that I/you/he will come"); the same suffix as the future tense, disambiguated by its syntactic position.
| ben | — |
| sen | — |
| o | gerekeceği |
| biz | — |
| siz | — |
| onlar | — |
-EbIl- is inserted before the tense suffix (most often the aorist) to add "can/be able to"; it conjugates exactly like the tense it is attached to.
| ben | — |
| sen | — |
| o | gerekebilir |
| biz | — |
| siz | — |
| onlar | — |
-(y)EmE- is the negative counterpart of -EbIl-; unlike a plain negative, it specifically means "unable to", and its own aorist is irregular (-mEz, not -mEr): gelemem, gelemez.
| ben | — |
| sen | — |
| o | gerekemez |
| biz | — |
| siz | — |
| onlar | — |
Links two clauses with the same subject ("[does X] and [does Y]"); very common in narrating a sequence of actions.
| gerekip |
Describes the manner of the main action, or two simultaneous actions ("by doing/while doing").
| gerekerek |
A subordinate "when" clause; the subject can be the same as or different from the main clause.
| gerekince |
Means "the more [X happens], the more..." or "every time/as long as [X happens]".
| gerektikçe |
Attaches to the aorist-like base to mean "while [doing]"; can also attach to nouns and adjectives (gençken, "while young").
| gerekirken |
Means "without [doing]"; very common with önce ("before") in the fixed phrase -meden önce.
| gerekmeden |
| Erken gitmem gerekiyor. | I need to go early (literally: my going early is necessary). |
| Bunu bilmen gerekir. | You need to know this. |
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