Now we're going to talk about how to form the definite past tense in Turkish the
definite past tense is the past tense you'll use to
express statements like "she laughed" or "I came, I saw, I conquered"
Turkish has two simple past tenses the definite past tense is the past tense you'll use to describe
past events which you witnessed which you took part in or which you can vouch for
so for example, if I want to make a statement like
"I danced" I can use the definite past tense
but if I want to make a statement like
"Julius Caesar danced," unless I saw
Julius Caesar dancing, unless that was an event I witnessed or took part in or can in anyway
directly vouch for I probably don't want to use the definite past tense now
Let's look at how we can form the definite past tense. It's quite simple as usual
We are going to start off with our verb stem
For our first example verb let's look at "vermek" the Turkish verb meaning to give so a verb stem is "ver-"
Let's say we want to form the phrase
"I gave" or "I have given," the definite past tense can carry either meaning
So we'll start with our verb stem
and we'll add the appropriate form of the definite past tense suffix as
You can see the definite past tense suffix follows the rules of four-way vowel harmony
So when we're choosing the appropriate form of the definite past tense suffix
We'll want to look at what vowel appears in the syllable to which we are attaching it so there
We're going to choose
"-di" as our appropriate from the definite past tense suffix
"verdi"
We wanted to form the phrase "I gave" or "I have given" so then our next ingredient is
the appropriate personal suffix for the definite past tense verb stem
Definite past tense suffix now our appropriate personal suffix
"I gave" so first person singular, "-m"
"verdim": I gave
we also have the option although it's not required of
using our personal pronoun "ben": I
Before "verdim": I gave
now if the verb
excuse me, if the verb stem
Which we want to put in the definite past tense ends in what we call a voiceless consonant
We're going to do something slightly different
What's a voiceless consonant? In Turkish a voiceless consonant is one of the following:
"ç, f, h, k, p, s, ş, or t"
Are all voiceless
consonants. If your verb stem ends in a voiceless consonant like the verb stem
"Yap" from "yapmak": the Turkish verb meaning to make or to do
"yap"
That "p" is one of our voiceless consonants
For a stem like "yap," which ends in a voiceless consonant
We're going to choose a form of the definite past tense suffix
which begins with
"t"
Instead of "d." "T" you'll notice is one of our voiceless consonants, so we're matching
Voiceless consonant to voiceless consonant and
Which of these four "t" forms will we choose for "yap"? Well?
We'll follow the rules of four-way vowel harmony just as we did with "vermek" so
"Verdim"
"Yaptım"
"t" so "yaptım"
now
let's go back to "vermek" and see how it could form the phrase
you
singular informal gave or have given
"sen" optional
"verdin"
Third person singular so, he, she or it
optional "o" or we could have a
noun or a proper noun here
"verdi"
We don't have a personal suffix. We need to add
to the definite past tense in the third person singular so we'll stop there, "verdi" or "o verdi"
moving on to the plural, "biz": we
"verdik"
"biz verdik": we gave this
"siz verdi..."
We have four different forms of our
suffix to choose from, our personal suffix in the second person plural
But we'll have an easy time choosing because this suffix simply follows the rules of four-way vowel harmony, so for "verdi"
"verdiniz"
"Siz verdiniz": you plural or you formal gave or have given
finally "onlar"
they
"verdi"
And we can stop there simply say "onlar verdi"
They gave or if we want to clarify that this is, or emphasize that it's plural we can also say
"onlar verdiler"
Optional "-ler"
Notice this is our familiar plural suffix "-ler..." excuse me "-ler/-lar"
"-ler/-lar" our plural suffix, will follow the rules of two-way vowel harmony
Unlike the definite past tense suffix which is following the rules of four-way vowel harmony, all right
Let's go through our declension with "yapmak" as well just to see what it looks like with one of our
Voiceless consonant stems, so we saw
"Ben yaptım"
"Sen yaptın"
"O yaptı"
"Biz yaptık"
"Siz yaptı..."
and remember we'll choose the appropriate form according to the rules of four-way vowel harmony
So "siz yaptınız"
"Onlar yaptı"
That would be fine for to mean "they did" or "they made" or "they have done" or "they have made"
We also have the option of adding that plural suffix if we want to emphasize the plurality
so "onlar yaptı" or "onlar yaptılar"
And hat's how we form the definite past tense in Turkish