In Turkish, verbs carry a lot of weight. One can use only verbs to participate in a conversation and be able to convey her message.

For example:

Git-ti-n-mi?

Go-did-you-(question suffix)? (Did you go?)

Gid-eme-di-m. Koş-uyor-du-m.

Go-could not-did-me (I couldn’t go). Run-currently-did-me (I was running).

Git-meli-ydi-n.

Go-should-did-you (You should have gone).

In this conversation the verb “go” has repeated with different suffixes to the stem “git”. You may also have noticed the little adjustments, i.e. addition of “y” before “di” to complement the flow and the change of the letter “t” into “d” when a vowel “e” comes right after it. We’ll learn about these in a new tiny step later. For now, just ignore them.

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A general structure of a verb is as follows:

Koş-tu-m. = Run-did-me (I ran)

Stem-Time suffix-Person

We can also produce nouns, adjectives and adverbs by adding suffixes to the verbs.

Koş-arak gel-di-m.

(Adverb) (Verb)

Run-ning come-did-me (I came here by running).

Here, “koşarak” is formed by adding “-arak” to the verb “koş”.

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Verbs always come to the end of a regular sentence. Subject almost always comes first and the rest goes in between. We’ll see some basic sentences in the next tiny step.

Ben Türkçe öğren-iyor-um. = I Turkish learn-currently-me (I am learning Turkish).

(Subject) (Noun) (Verb)

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Let’s see an assortment of common verbs here and then go to the basic sentences.

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