Now I'm going to talk about how to form the reported past tense in Turkish
The reported past tense is sometimes known as the narrative past tense or the inferential
dubitative
Basically the reported past tense is the tense that you can use in Turkish to describe
events which
you're not entirely certain
actually occurred, that you didn't see for yourself, that you have some doubt about
that happened far away and long ago, and you weren't there
So for example let's say you want to say the sentence "Nilay" a Turkish woman's name
"went to Ankara"
Nilay Ankara'ya...
Turkish word for to go is "gitmek"
Well, will we use the reported past tense or not? If you were with Nilay when she went to Ankara
you sat next to her on the bus, you know she went, you can "Nilay Ankara'ya gitti."
Using the definite past tense you know she went to Ankara you were there, too
But if you've only heard a rumor that Nilay went to Ankara, you haven't spoken with her yourself
You don't really know she went you just think she did
then that would be a case where you could use the reported past tense, so
Nilay Ankara'ya gitmiş.
Now we can translate the reported past tense into English...it isn't in a case like this is
Apparently Nilay I went to Ankara. I've heard that Nilay went to Ankara
It said that Nilay I went to Ankara but you're distancing yourself from the event you're not absolutely certain
That's why it's sometimes called dubitative, but we'll call it the reported past tense
Let's see how to form it. It's actually quite simple
We'll use as our example, our first example verb the verb "gitmek": to go
We'll start with "ben"
"Ben git..."
Now we'll simply choose the appropriate form of the reported past tense suffix according to the rules of four-way vowel harmony, so "ben gitmiş..."
and
to this reported past tense suffix we'll add the appropriate...excuse me, we'll add the appropriate
personal
suffix
according to the rules of four-way vowel harmony, so "ben gitmişim"
Now you may be wondering
Why would you use the reported past tense for the first person singular?
"Apparently I went?"
well you'd use this "ben gitmişim"
for example if you were describing a journey made when you were a baby, and you don't really remember it at all
but apparently you did go, your mother and father say that you did or if for some reason your memory was impaired you have amnesia
"Apparently I went but I don't remember it" I have no direct knowledge that this event occurred
Let's continue
"Sen..."
you singular, informal
"gitmiş..."
and again, we're going to follow the rules of four-way vowel harmony, "gitmişsin"
you apparently or reportedly went
"O gitmiş" and there's no third person singular
personal suffix that we're going to add. "O gitmiş": he or she or it apparently went
"Biz gitmişiz": We apparently reportedly went, I've heard that we went, but I don't remember or I don't know for sure
"Siz..." you plural or you formal
"gitmişsiniz"
You plural or you formal apparently or reportedly went and finally
"Onlar...": they
"gitmiş"
They apparently went or we have the option of adding to "gitmiş"
the appropriate plural suffix according to the rules of two-way vowel harmony
So "gitmişler" (onlar gitmişler): they apparently went
As I say is optional
Now I want to emphasize that
athough we are following the rules of four-way vowel harmony when we add the reported past tense ending
we don't need to worry in this case about any kind of buffer, so if the
verb to which you are adding the reported past tense suffix ends in a vowel you proceed exactly as usual
Let's just see how this works with the verb "okumak" to read
"Oku-" is our verb stem
"Okumuşum"
I apparently read my Turkish book from front to back, but I don't seem to remember everything I read, "okumuşum"
"Sen okumuşsun": You apparently or you reportedly read this
"O okumuş..." we can stop
"Biz okumuşuz"
"Siz okumuşsunuz"
"Onlar okumuş" or "okumuşlar"
following the rules in this case with the plural suffix of two-way vowel harmony
And that's the reported past tense