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Istemek Conjugation

istemek means "to want" in Turkish. Present continuous: ben istiyorum, sen istiyorsun, o istiyor, biz istiyoruz, siz istiyorsunuz, onlar istiyorlar. Below: all 36 tenses we teach, with examples.

Present continuous Şimdiki Zaman

Formed with -Iyor on the stem; used for actions happening right now and, very commonly in speech, for near-future plans.

Aorist (habitual present) Geniş Zaman

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.

Simple past (witnessed) Görülen Geçmiş Zaman

Formed with -DI; used for events the speaker personally witnessed, did, or is certain of.

Reported past (inferential) Duyulan / Öğrenilen Geçmiş Zaman

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.

Future Gelecek Zaman

Formed with -EcEk; a final k softens to ğ before the vowel-initial 1st-person endings (geleceğim, geleceğiz).

Past continuous Şimdiki Zamanın Hikâyesi

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.

Past continuous, reported Şimdiki Zamanın Rivayeti

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.

Habitual past (used to) Geniş Zamanın Hikâyesi

The aorist stem plus the past copula -DI; equivalent to English "used to" or a repeated past action.

Habitual past, reported (rare) Geniş Zamanın Rivayeti

The aorist stem plus -mIş instead of -DI ("apparently used to"); rare, mostly literary or folk-narrative in tone.

Pluperfect, witnessed (colloquial) Di'li Geçmişin Hikâyesi

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.

Pluperfect (had done) Miş'li Geçmişin Hikâyesi

The reported past -mIş plus the past copula -DI ("had done"); note that -miş devoices the following d to t: gelmişti, not gelmişdi.

Pluperfect, reported (rare) Miş'li Geçmişin Rivayeti

The reported past -mIş doubled with -mIş again ("apparently had done"); rare, used mainly in folk tales and secondhand storytelling.

Prospective past (was going to) Gelecek Zamanın Hikâyesi

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.

Prospective past, reported (rare) Gelecek Zamanın Rivayeti

The future stem plus -mIş instead of -DI ("apparently was going to"); rare and mostly literary.

Necessity (must / should) Gereklilik Kipi

Formed with -mEli; the everyday way to say "must" or "should" as a single verb form (an alternative to the periphrastic gerek/lazım + infinitive).

Necessity, past (should have) Gerekliliğin Hikâyesi

-mEli plus the past copula -DI ("should have ... [but didn't]"); a common way to express regret about an unmet obligation.

Necessity, reported (rare) Gerekliliğin Rivayeti

-mEli plus -mIş instead of -DI ("apparently should"); rare, used to relay someone else's judgment of an obligation.

Optative (may / let) İstek Kipi

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.

Conditional / wish (if... ; I wish...) Dilek-Şart Kipi

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.

Conditional, past (if only ... had) Şartın Hikâyesi

-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.

Conditional, reported (rare) Şartın Rivayeti

-sE plus -mIş instead of -DI ("apparently, if he had..."); rare, mostly colloquial storytelling.

Affirmative imperative Olumlu Emir Kipi

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).

Negative imperative Olumsuz Emir Kipi

The negative infix -mE- is inserted right before the person ending; otherwise identical in structure to the affirmative.

Infinitive Mastar

-mek/-mak; the dictionary/citation form, also used as a verbal noun in object position (gelmek istiyorum "I want to come").

Verbal noun (gerund) İsim-Fiil

-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.

Participle, present/subject Sıfat-Fiil (-En)

-En makes an adjectival participle referring to the doer, the basis of every subject relative clause ("the man who comes/is coming").

Participle, past/object Sıfat-Fiil (-DIk)

-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.

Participle, future Sıfat-Fiil (-EcEk)

-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.

Ability (can) Yeterlilik Kipi (-EbIl-)

-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.

Inability (cannot) Yetersizlik (-(y)EmE-)

-(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.

Converb: and then -Ip

Links two clauses with the same subject ("[does X] and [does Y]"); very common in narrating a sequence of actions.

Converb: by / while doing -ErEk

Describes the manner of the main action, or two simultaneous actions ("by doing/while doing").

Converb: when -InCE

A subordinate "when" clause; the subject can be the same as or different from the main clause.

Converb: the more... -DIkçA

Means "the more [X happens], the more..." or "every time/as long as [X happens]".

Converb: while -(y)ken

Attaches to the aorist-like base to mean "while [doing]"; can also attach to nouns and adjectives (gençken, "while young").

Converb: without doing -mEdEn

Means "without [doing]"; very common with önce ("before") in the fixed phrase -meden önce.

Examples

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