Ali eve gelmişti.
English: Ali had come home.
- Language
- Turkish
- Level
- B2
- Unit
- Zaman ve sıralama
- Practice types
- 0
What this grammar point covers
In Turkish, 'iç içe geçmiş zamanlar' means using more than one tense together in a sentence, especially to talk about actions that happened before another action in the past. This is often called 'reported past' or 'past within the past.'
When to use it
You use these forms to talk about an action that was already finished before another past event, or to report something that had happened earlier. It's common in stories or when giving background information.
Key forms
- miş'li geçmiş zaman + geçmiş zaman: gitmişti, yapmıştı
- miş'li geçmiş zaman + şimdiki zaman: gelmiş oluyor
- miş'li geçmiş zaman + gelecek zaman: gitmiş olacak
Examples
Sen aradığında ben çoktan çıkmıştım.
English: I had already left when you called.
Film başladığında herkes yerini almıştı.
English: Everyone had taken their seat when the movie started.
Ders bittiğinde ödevimi bitirmiş olacağım.
English: I will have finished my homework when the class ends.
Tips
- Remember to use the correct suffixes for both the verb and the tense.
- Be careful not to confuse simple past with 'past within the past' forms.
- These forms are more common in writing and formal speech.