Turkish grammar: geçmiş zaman (-di’li geçmiş zaman)

What this grammar point covers

The Turkish 'geçmiş zaman' (-di’li geçmiş zaman) is the simple past tense. It is used to talk about actions or events that happened in the past and are finished.

When to use it

Use this tense in Turkish when you want to talk about something that happened and finished in the past. It is used for actions that you know happened, not for reported or uncertain actions.

Key forms

• Verb stem + -di/-dı/-du/-dü + personal ending
• Examples: geldi (he/she/it came), gördüm (I saw), yazdın (you wrote)

Examples

Tips

• The ending (-di, -dı, -du, -dü) changes according to vowel harmony. Match the vowels in the verb stem.
• Remember to add the correct personal ending after the tense ending.
• The letter 'd' can change to 't' after voiceless consonants (for example: 'git-' becomes 'gittim').

Exceptions and edge cases

• Some verbs with stems ending in a voiceless consonant use -ti/-tı/-tu/-tü instead of -di/-dı/-du/-dü.