Now we're going to talk about how to express the definite past tense in Turkish without using a verb
What we're going to do is we're going to take a version of the definite past
auxiliary and
attach it directly
to a noun and adjective
post position, a question word, can attach to all kinds of different things that are not verbs and then if appropriate
we'll choose one of our definite past tense personal suffixes to add as well. Let's see how this works. It's actually quite simple as
Our example, we'll look at the Turkish word
"Yazar" meaning writer
In Turkish if you want to say "I am a writer" in the present you'll simply add the appropriate
personal suffix directly to the word "Yazar": writer. Yes, "yazarım": I am a writier
But what if you want to say "I was a writer," okay, we'll start again with the Turkish word "yazar": writer
optional
personal pronoun, "ben": I
"Yazar..."
Well, we'll choose the appropriate form of the definite past auxiliary suffix according to the rules of four-way vowel harmony
So for "yazar" it'll be "yazardı"
And it's "I was a writer." So we'll choose the appropriate form of
the definite past tense personal suffix, so
"Ben yazardım"
"Ben yazardım": I was a writer
Let's see how this works moving forward. "Sen": you singular, you informal son
"Sen yazardın": You were a writer
"O": He she or it
"yazardı"
Okay, "o yazardı" and we stop because there is no
personal suffix to add for us to add in the third-person singular so, he she or it was a writer
moving on to the plural
"Biz": we, optional pronoun. "yazardık"
"Yazardık" or "Biz yazardık": we were writers
"Siz": you formal, or you plural, "yazardı..."
alright, well, we see the second person plural definite past tense personal suffix
has four different forms according to the rule, that follow the rules of four-way vowel harmony, so "yazardınız"
"Yazardınız"
Finally for they, "onlar"
We have a few options all of which are synonymous, so we can simply say "Onlar yazardı"
They were writers. We can say "onlar yazardılar" plural suffix
or we can actually also say
"Onlar yazarlardı"
All three are correct. I'm going to leave "Onlar yazarlardı" up on the board
Now, we notice that "yazar"
ends in a consonant, ok, voiced consonant
But what if we want to add the definite past tense auxiliary suffix to a noun, an adjective,
a post position some non-verbal predicate that
ends in a vowel. What we're going to do is we're going to insert this buffer "y" before
The definite past tense auxiliary suffix so for example, let's look at the adjective, "neşeli": cheerful
"neşeli"
In Turkish if you want to say "I was cheerful" you're going to insert that buffer "y," "neşeli"
then
definite past auxiliary according to the rules of four-way vowel harmony
So "neşeliydi." We want to say "I was cheerful" so now we have our
appropriate definite past tense personal suffix, "neşeliydim": I was cheerful and
this goes on following this pattern so "neşeliydin"
you singular, informal were cheerful
"O neşeliydi" no additional personal suffix third-person singular
"Biz" optional, "neşel..." Excuse me, "neşeliydik" - "Biz neşeliydik"
"Siz neşeliydiniz" remember that this suffix follows the rules of forward vowel harmony also, "neşeliydiniz"
And finally
"Onlar neşeliydi" optional "-ler" or "neşeliylerdi"
There is one other option that we have, if
the noun, adjective, if the word that we want to add the definite past
auxiliary suffix to end in what's called a voiceless consonant, so one of these in Turkish:
"ç, f, h, k, p, s, ş, or t"
If the word ends in one of those then we're going to attach, and we want to put it in the definite past tense,
we're going to attach a form of the definite past auxiliary that begins
With "t" which is as you can see also one of these voiceless consonants, as an example
let's look at the adjective "küçük" meaning little or small
Let's say we want to say "I was small." Start with the word "küçük"
Which you'll notice ends in a "k" which is one of our voiceless consonants
And we'll simply choose a form of the definite past auxiliary suffix according to the rules of four-way vowel harmony
but we'll choose one of the ones that begins with a "t" so, "-tü"
"küçüktü" we want to say "I was little" so "küçüktüm" - "ben küçüktüm": I was little
For "sen"
"sen küçüktün": you were little
"O küçüktü": which could mean he was little, she was little, it was a little biz
"Biz küçüktük"
"Siz küçüktünüz"
Notice our second person plural suffix is following the rules of four-way vowel harmony also omar
"Onlar küçük..." and we have our various options.
It can simply be "Onlar küçüktü" that's alright, it can be "Onlar küçüktüler"
Notice that as always the plural suffix -lar or -ler
is actually following the rules of two-way vowel Harmony
"küçüktülerdi"
"O küçüklerdi"
all of those options are correct
We should remember that the definite past auxiliary can be attached to
lexical items towards other than nouns or
adjectives
for example you
may see the definite past auxiliary attach to question words like who? or what?when?
you will may also see them attached to the words "var" and "yok"
Which you can learn more about in another video
But just so you can see what the definite past tense looks like for "var"
Follows the same rule as any other
word which is having the definite past tense applied to it so "vardı"
"Var" means there is or there, "vardı" means there was or there were
with "yok"
"yok" ends in one of these voiceless consonants, so we're going to say "yoktu"
There was not or there were not one
One other note regarding the definite past tense auxiliary suffix
You can't attach it on top of a possessive ending so for example
the Turkish word for teacher is "öğretmen"
so "öğretmendin"
You were a teacher, but if you want to say you were "my teacher"
You can attach the possessive suffix, "öğretmenim": my teacher
"öğretmenimdin"
You, informal, were my teacher