Lesson 1

Lesson on Past Tense in Turkish

Introduction

In Turkish, the past tense is essential for expressing actions or events that occurred in the past. To form the past tense in Turkish, we mainly use suffixes attached to the verb roots. Understanding how to conjugate verbs in the past tense is crucial for effective communication in Turkish.

Forming the Past Tense

Regular Verbs

For regular verbs, we attach the past tense suffixes directly to the verb root. There are four different suffixes based on vowel harmony and the last vowel of the verb root:

• -dı, -di, -du, -dü for past actions ending in vowels a, ı, o, u

• -tı, -ti, -tu, -tü for past actions ending in vowels e, i, ö, ü

Irregular Verbs

There are some irregular verbs that do not follow the standard rules for past tense formation. These verbs have unique conjugations that need to be memorized.

Examples

Regular Verb Example: "Yemek" (to eat)

• Ben yemek yedim. (I ate)

• Sen yemek yedin. (You ate)

• O yemek yedi. (He/She/It ate)

• Biz yemek yedik. (We ate)

• Siz yemek yediniz. (You ate)

• Onlar yemek yediler. (They ate)

Irregular Verb Example: "Gitmek" (to go)

• Ben gittim. (I went)

• Sen gittin. (You went)

• O gitti. (He/She/It went)

• Biz gittik. (We went)

• Siz gittiniz. (You went)

• Onlar gittiler. (They went)

Practice Exercise

Conjugate the following verbs into the past tense in Turkish:

1. Yazmak (to write)

2. Okumak (to read)

3. Gelmek (to come)

Tip: Remember to consider vowel harmony and the last vowel of the verb roots.