Now we're going to talk about the present progressive tense in Turkish

The present progressive tense is the tense we're going to use to describe actions that are currently ongoing

that are just about to take place or which occur regularly or habitually

Let's look at how we form the present progressive tense

For our example we're going to use the verb "yazmak"

to write

To form the present progressive tense you take the verb stem

"yaz-

and

add to it the present progressive tense suffix "-yor"

Because Turkish does not

like to see two consonants next to each other we're going to need to use one of these for

buffer

vowels according to the

Turkish rules of four-way vowel harmony, so we're going to choose "-iyor, -ıyor, -uyor, or -üyor"

"yazmak" because of this "a" we're going to choose"-ıyor" so

we have verb stem,

buffer vowel,

present progressive tense suffix

To this we're going to add one of our personal suffixes

so let's start with

the first person singular so "ben": I

"yaz-" verb stem

"ı"

buffer vowel "-yor" present progressive tense suffix

"-um"

"Yazıyorum": I am writing or I habitually write

This is in parentheses this personal pronoun

"ben" because in fact all the information you need to understand this word is already in this suffix

So if you simply say "yazıyorum" that already means

I write or I am writing. If you want to emphasize *I* am writing or clarify then you can use the pronoun then

Let's continue with the second person singular

Sen

yaz-

ıyor

sun

Notice these are the same personal suffixes you've seen elsewhere

But because they will, in the present progressive tense, they will be attaching directly

To the present progressive tense suffix your they'll only appear with the vowel, "u"

so they don't have their usual four different options according to vowel harmony because they'll always harmonize with "yor"

so "sen yazıyorsun"

He or she or it is writing

"o": He she it or you can use a name like Mehmet, Ahmet

"yazıyor-"

And we don't have a third-person singular

personal suffix that we're going to use here. So you stop there. For "he or she is writing" we simply say

"yazıyor" or "o yazıyor"

Let's move on to the plural

"Biz": we

"yaz-"

"ı" buffer vowel, "yor" present progressive tense suffix

"-uz"

"Yazıyoruz": we are writing, we habitually write

"Siz": you plural, you formal

"Yazıyorsunuz"

Remember that I

am using "ı" here as our buffer vowel

but the this buffer vowel will change depending on the vowel in the verb stem

Finally for they

Onlar

And again, I'm using the pronoun here, the personal pronoun, but you're free to use

nouns or proper nouns

"yazıyor"

That's fine that can mean they

are

writing or they habitually write

If the subject, if the person doing the writing and

in this case it must be, is an animate person a human being, you may also want to add the

plural ending to the verb "yazıyorlar":

they are writing, but you don't have to, it's not obligatory

And you're not going to do it if the subject of the verb is an inanimate object

Snowflakes falling for example would not use "-lar"

Okay, so that's "yazmak" in the present progressive tense

Now I want to talk about what happens

if you put

the verbs

"gitmek" to go or "etmek" to do in the present progressive tense

"gitmek" to go or "etmek" to do

"gitmek" and "etmek" when you put them into the present progressive tense are these

you'll notice that these two verbs stems both end in "t"

That "t" is going to undergo consonant alternation with "d"

so

For "girmek" if you want to say I am going or I habitually go I'm going to say

Not "git-" but "gidiyorum"

"gidiyorum": I am going or I have actually go

Same story with "etmek" so this "et-" is going to become "ed-"

"Ediyorum": I am doing

Now let's talk about how you put into the present progressive tense a

verb stem that ends in a vowel

Let's consider the verb "okumak": to read

Take the verb stem, "oku-"

Notice that this verb stem ends, not just in a vowel, but in one of our four four-way vowel harmony valves "i, ı, u, or ü"

If your verb stem ends in one of those four vowels you can just leave it there you're not going to add an additional

buffer value don't need one, so you're simply going to add the present progressive tense suffix "yor"

Let's say I want to say "I am reading or I habitually read." I'm gonna say

"okuyorum" or if it's second person singular "you read or you are reading"

"okuyorsun"

It's pretty simple, but

what if

you're

stem ends in a vowel other than one of these four so for example the Turkish verb "başlamak": to begin

This is the verb stem "başla" "a" it's not one of our four

vowel harmony vowels, so what are we going to do when we want to form the present progressive tense? We're going to take "başla-"

And we're simply going to add

the buffer vowel which harmonizes best with the

preceding vowel in the verb stem. So in this case our preceding vowel is our

According to the rules of four-way vowel harmony we're going to choose "ı" as our buffer vowel so "başlıyor"

And then "başlıyorum" and "başlıyorsun" and so on...