Language Trip

Conjugation › Turkish › Kalmak

Turkish · Verb Tables · Advanced

Kalmak Conjugation

kalmak means "to stay / remain" in Turkish. Present continuous: ben kalıyorum, sen kalıyorsun, o kalıyor, biz kalıyoruz, siz kalıyorsunuz, onlar kalıyorlar. 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

Learn Turkish Free

Practice Kalmak and every other verb with flashcards and verb drills in the Language Trip app and website. Free, no account needed, no ads.

All Turkish verb tables · Basic Turkish phrases