Turkish Compound Tenses: -ecekti, -mişti, -irdi, -iyormuş, -miştir and More

Turkish builds many of its “extra” tenses by stacking a second suffix on top of a tense. That second suffix is a form of the old verb “to be” (i-): -di (past), -miş (reported), -se (conditional), plus the generalising -dir. Combine them with the five basic tense stems and you get forms like gelecekti (was going to come), gelmişti (had come), gelirdi (used to come / would come) and geliyormuş (is apparently coming).

Turkish grammars call these birleşik zamanlı fiiller. This guide sets out the system, explains the meanings that do not translate one-to-one into English, and shows the person endings, which are the main source of errors.

The building blocks

Each compound form is tense stem + copula + person ending.

The copula harmonises with the last vowel of the tense suffix, not of the verb root, and its d becomes t after a voiceless consonant (see consonant mutation):

• gel-ecek + di → gelecekti (after k)
• yap-acak + di → yapacaktı
• gör-müş + di → görmüştü (after ş)
• gel-ir + di → gelirdi
• gel-meli + di → gelmeliydi (buffer y after a vowel)
• gel-iyor + di → geliyordu (always u)

The separate forms (gelecek idi, gelmiş imiş) are grammatical but sound formal or old-fashioned; in normal writing the suffixed forms are used.

The grid: tense × copula

Here are the forms of gelmek (third person singular). Not every cell is equally frequent; the most important ones are in bold.

The past continuous (geliyordu) has its own guide. Below are the others you need at B2.

-ecekti: “was going to”, “would have”

Future + past copula. It places a future plan in the past, and very often implies the plan fell through.

• Seni arayacaktım ama unuttum. — I was going to call you, but I forgot.
• Tren dokuzda kalkacaktı, yarım saat rötar yaptı. — The train was supposed to leave at nine; it was half an hour late.
• Size bir şey soracaktım. — I wanted to ask you something. (polite opener)

In unreal conditions it means “would have”, often interchangeable with -irdi:

• Bilseydim söyleyecektim / söylerdim. — If I had known, I would have said.

-mişti: “had done” (pluperfect)

Reported past + past copula. It marks an event as completed before another past point.

• İstasyona vardığımızda tren kalkmıştı. — When we got to the station, the train had left.
• Daha önce hiç Kapadokya’ya gitmemiştim. — I had never been to Cappadocia before.

In everyday speech -mişti also refers to a past event that is now distant or that the speaker is recalling: Bu kitabı sana vermiştim, hatırlıyor musun? — I gave you this book (back then), remember?

-irdi: “used to” and “would”

Aorist + past copula. Two main jobs:

1. Past habits: Çocukken her yaz köye giderdik. — As children we used to go to the village every summer.
2. Counterfactual results: Param olsa bir ev alırdım. — If I had money, I would buy a house.

The negative uses the aorist negative -mez/-maz: Eskiden kahve içmezdim. — I didn’t use to drink coffee.

-iyormuş, -ecekmiş, -irmiş: “apparently”

The -miş copula adds the meaning of the reported past to any tense: the speaker learned it from someone else or inferred it.

• Ali hastanede çalışıyormuş. — Apparently Ali works at a hospital.
• Yarın kar yağacakmış. — They say it’s going to snow tomorrow.
• Bu lokanta çok güzel balık yaparmış. — I hear this restaurant does great fish.
• Meğer herkes biliyormuş! — It turns out everyone knew!

It also appears with nouns and with var/yok: Hastaymış (apparently he’s ill), Evdeymiş (apparently she’s home), Meğer haberim yokmuş (it turns out I had no idea). Fairy tales open with Bir varmış, bir yokmuş — “Once there was, once there wasn’t.”

-mişmiş (e.g. gelmişmiş) is colloquial and often sceptical: Ödevini bitirmişmiş, öyle diyor. — “He’d supposedly finished his homework; that’s what he says.”

-miştir, -iyordur, -ecektir: the -dir forms

-dir has two very different uses, and register decides which you hear.

Formal statement of fact (news, textbooks, official notices):

• Bu bina 1890’da yapılmıştır. — This building was built in 1890.
• Toplantı saat 10.00’da yapılacaktır. — The meeting will be held at 10:00.
• Düzenli spor yapmak sağlığa yararlıdır. — Regular exercise is good for your health.

Confident guess (everyday speech):

• Şimdiye kadar eve varmıştır. — He must have got home by now.
• Çocuklar uyuyordur. — The kids are probably asleep.
• Annem merak ediyordur. — My mum is probably worried.

Speech tone and context tell you which reading is meant: a news anchor’s gelmiştir is a fact; your friend’s gelmiştir is a guess.

-meliydi and -seydi: regrets and unreal conditions

• Daha erken çıkmalıydık. — We should have left earlier. (necessitative + past; see the necessitative)
• Keşke gelseydin. — I wish you had come.
• Erken kalksaydık treni kaçırmazdık. — If we had got up early, we wouldn’t have missed the train.

The last pattern, -seydi … -irdi, is the standard unreal past conditional. The conditional mood page covers the real conditions.

-diyse, -mişse, -iyorsa: conditions on a tense

Adding -se to a tense stem gives a real condition about something that may already be true:

• Bitirdiysen gidelim. — If you’ve finished, let’s go.
• Yağmur yağıyorsa taksiye binelim. — If it’s raining, let’s take a taxi.
• Ali söylemişse doğrudur. — If Ali said it, it must be true.
• Gelecekseniz haber verin. — If you’re going to come, let us know.

Person endings: the last suffix decides

The rule: look at the final copula.

• After -di and -se → k-type endings (-m, -n, —, -k, -niz, -ler).
• After -miş and -dir → z-type endings (-im, -sin, —, -iz, -siniz, -ler); with -dir, the person ending comes first.

For onlar, the plural normally comes before the copula (geleceklerdi, gelmişlerse); gelecektiler is also heard.

Questions put mi after the tense stem and the copula on the particle: gelecek miydin? (were you going to come?), gitmiş miydiniz? (had you gone?), gelir miydi? (would he come? / did he use to come?).

Negatives negate the inner verb: gelmeyecekti, gelmemişti, gelmezdi, gelmiyormuş.

Common mistakes

1. Harmonising the copula with the root. Gelecekdi and gelmişdi ignore the voiceless consonant; write gelecekti, gelmişti.
2. Wrong ending type. Gelecektisin mixes systems; use gelecektin. Conversely, gelecekmişin should be gelecekmişsin.
3. Reading -miştir as “past” in conversation. Gelmiştir from a friend usually means “he must have come”, not a flat statement.
4. Using -di + -miş. Geldiymiş is not standard; for a reported completed event, gelmiş is enough.

Mini-exercise

Translate using a compound tense.

1. I was going to buy bread, but the shop was closed.
2. When I woke up, everyone had left.
3. Apparently the museum is closed on Mondays.
4. She must be at work now (confident guess).
5. You should have told me.
6. If I had known, I would have come.

Answers

1. Ekmek alacaktım ama dükkân kapalıydı.
2. Uyandığımda herkes gitmişti.
3. Müze pazartesileri kapalıymış.
4. Şu an iştedir. (or Şu an çalışıyordur.)
5. Bana söylemeliydin.
6. Bilseydim gelirdim. (or gelecektim)

Next steps

Conjugate a verb in the future and reported past in the conjugator, then add -di, -miş and -dir to each form yourself. For how -dik and -ecek turn whole clauses into objects, continue with noun clauses.