Turkish Past Continuous Tense (-iyordu): 'Was Doing' in Turkish

The Turkish past continuous describes an action that was in progress at some point in the past: Sen aradığında yemek yapıyordum — “I was cooking when you called.” In Turkish grammar it is called şimdiki zamanın hikâyesi, literally “the story form of the present continuous”, and that name tells you how it is built: the present continuous plus a past marker.

If you can already form geliyorum (I am coming) from the present continuous tense, this tense takes one extra step.

How to form the past continuous

Verb stem + (I)yor + du + past person ending

The -du is the past form of “to be” (idi) attached as a suffix. It harmonises with the last vowel in front of it, which is always the o of -yor. So unlike most Turkish suffixes, it never changes: every verb ends in -yordu.

The person endings are the short k-type endings used with the definite past tense: -m, -n, —, -k, -nuz, -lar.

The stem changes are exactly the same as in the present continuous:

• 4-way vowel before -yor: gel → geliyor, yap → yapıyor, gör → görüyor, bul → buluyor. This is 4-way vowel harmony.
• Stems ending in -a / -e narrow the vowel: bekle → bekliyordu, ara → arıyordu, söyle → söylüyordu, oyna → oynuyordu.
• Final t softens to d: git → gidiyordu, et → ediyordu (yardım ediyordu, he was helping).
• de- and ye-: diyordu (he was saying), yiyordu (he was eating).

For onlar, the plural goes before the past marker: geliyorlardı. The form geliyordular also exists in speech, but -lardı is the standard choice.

Negative and question forms

Negative: put -me/-ma after the stem. Before -yor its vowel narrows to i, ı, u, ü:

Questions: the question particle mi comes straight after -yor, so it is always mu, and the past marker and person ending attach to the particle with a buffer y:

• O sırada uyuyor muydun? — Were you sleeping at that moment?
• Bizi dinlemiyor muydunuz? — Weren’t you listening to us?

When to use -iyordu

1. An action in progress at a past moment

• Dün saat sekizde ne yapıyordun? — What were you doing at eight yesterday?
• Ders çalışıyordum. — I was studying.
• Geçen yıl bu zamanlar Antalya’da yaşıyorduk. — This time last year we were living in Antalya.

2. Background for an interrupting event

The background action takes -iyordu; the event that interrupts it takes -di.

• Yemek yapıyordum, telefon çaldı. — I was cooking, (and) the phone rang.
• Biz evden çıkıyorduk, yağmur başladı. — We were leaving the house when it started raining.
• Tam uyuyordum ki kapı çaldı. — I was just falling asleep when the doorbell rang.

The Tam … -iyordum ki … pattern (“I was just … when …”) is very common in storytelling.

The background can also be expressed with -ken (“while”): Yemek yaparken telefon çaldı — The phone rang while I was cooking. See converbs like -ken and -ince for more.

3. Two actions happening at the same time

• Ben bulaşık yıkıyordum, eşim çocuklarla oynuyordu. — I was washing the dishes and my spouse was playing with the kids.
• Herkes konuşuyordu, kimse dinlemiyordu. — Everyone was talking; nobody was listening.

4. Past states with “knowing”, “wanting”, “loving”

Verbs like bilmek, istemek, sevmek, sanmak and beklemek usually describe states. In the past, Turkish tends to put them in -iyordu, where English uses the simple past:

• Bunu biliyordum! — I knew it!
• Seninle konuşmak istiyordum. — I wanted to talk to you.
• Onu tanıyor muydun? — Did you know him?
• Bu kadar zor olacağını tahmin etmiyordum. — I didn’t expect it to be this hard.

Bildim and istedim exist too, but they describe a moment: bildim is “I guessed (it) right”, istedim is “I asked for / requested”.

5. Repeated actions over a past period

-iyordu can describe what kept happening during a past period:

• O yaz her sabah denize giriyordum. — That summer I was swimming in the sea every morning.
• Pandemi sırasında evden çalışıyorduk. — During the pandemic we were working from home.

For long-term habits and “used to”, Turkish more often uses the past aorist -ardı/-erdi: Çocukken çok kitap okurdum — I used to read a lot as a child. Both are possible; -iyordu stresses that the period was ongoing at the time, -ardı that it was a characteristic habit. The compound tenses guide compares these past forms side by side.

-iyordu or -di?

A quick test: if you could say “was/were …ing” in English, -iyordu is usually right. If the action is presented as a finished whole, use -di.

Related forms you will meet

• -iyormuş — the reported version: Ali çalışıyormuş means “Apparently Ali was/is working.” The speaker heard it rather than witnessed it.
• -iyorsa — the conditional: Yağmur yağıyorsa evde kalalım — If it’s raining, let’s stay home.
• geliyor idim — the separate spelling with idi is grammatical but sounds old-fashioned or emphatic; in everyday writing use the suffixed geliyordum.

In a story: background and events

Turkish storytelling alternates the two past tenses constantly. Here is a short exchange between two friends:

• Elif: Dün neden telefonu açmadın? — Why didn’t you answer the phone yesterday?
• Can: Araba kullanıyordum. Yağmur yağıyordu, yol çok kalabalıktı. — I was driving. It was raining and the road was very busy.
• Elif: Peki eve varınca neden aramadın? — Well, why didn’t you call when you got home?
• Can: Eve vardım, tam seni arıyordum ki şarjım bitti. — I got home, and I was just calling you when my battery died.

The -iyordu verbs (kullanıyordum, yağıyordu, arıyordum) paint the scene; the -di verbs (açmadın, vardım, bitti) move the story forward.

Common mistakes

1. Harmonising -du with the stem. Geliyordim is wrong; the copula follows the o of -yor: geliyordum.
2. Using z-type endings. Geliyordusun is wrong; past forms take k-type endings: geliyordun.
3. Using -iyordu for completed events. Dün İstanbul’a gidiyordum sounds like a scene-setting with something to follow. If you simply mean “I went”, say gittim.
4. Putting the person ending on the verb in questions. Geliyordun mu? is wrong; say geliyor muydun?
5. Forgetting vowel narrowing. Bekleyordum is wrong; bekle- becomes bekliyordum.

Mini-exercise

Put the verb in brackets into the past continuous, or choose between -iyordu and -di.

1. Sen aradığında ben duş (almak). → ?
2. Çocuklar bahçede (oynamak). → ?
3. Biz otobüsü (beklemek), Ayşe geldi. → ?
4. (sen) Beni (dinlemek)? (question) → ?
5. Dün gece saat on ikide (uyumak / ben, negative). → ?
6. “I knew you would come!” → Geleceğini …!

Answers

1. Sen aradığında ben duş alıyordum. — I was having a shower when you called.
2. Çocuklar bahçede oynuyordu / oynuyorlardı. — The children were playing in the garden.
3. Biz otobüsü bekliyorduk, Ayşe geldi. — We were waiting for the bus when Ayşe arrived.
4. Beni dinliyor muydun? — Were you listening to me?
5. Dün gece saat on ikide uyumuyordum. — I wasn’t sleeping at midnight last night.
6. Geleceğini biliyordum! — I knew you would come!

(In 2, Turkish often leaves the verb singular when the plural subject is non-human or the plural is obvious; oynuyordu is perfectly natural.)

Practice this

Open the verb conjugator and run through the past continuous for a few verbs, then tell a short story about yesterday that alternates -iyordu backgrounds with -di events.