In this lesson we will focus on the Past Perfect Tense in Turkish.
This compund tense is used to express an action which took place before another action in the past.
Listen to this passage carefully and try to guess the verbs in Past Perfect Tense.
You will find other different verbal forms we haven't touched yet.Disregard them for a moment and focus on the Past perfect tense.
"Ben sabahleyin evden çıkarken masanın üstünde bir mesaj bırakmıştım,gördün mü?
Hayır görmedim.Ne yazmıstın?
Kızımla ilgiliydi.Çıkmdan önce ona söylemek istemiştim ama uyuyordu.
Ne yazmıştın söylermisin lütfen?
Ben gelinceye kadar evde oturmasını istemiştim.
İyi ama.Ben uyandığım zaman o okula gitmişti.Onun için görüşemedik.
Neyse zarar yok. Ben bieaz sonra geleceğim zaten.Şimdilik hoşçakal.
Güle güle!! Geçikme."
VOCABULARY/VOCABOLARIO
Sabahleyin: In the morning - di mattina
Bırakmak: To leave (sth) - lasciare (qualcosa)
-ile ilgili: related to, with regard to - a proposito di, che si riferisce a.
Zarar yok: Never mind, don't worry - nessun problema
Zaten: anyway - comunque
Geçikmek: To be late - ritardare, essere in ritardo (here geçikme is in imperative form: don't be late)
Evden çıkarken: While getting out - mentre uscivo di casa
GRAMMATICAL NOTES
The construction of the Past Perfect Tense in Turkish is quite simple and is based upon the Reported tense conjugation we already met in Lesson 34 I recommend to have a look at since the rules are pretty much the same except for an additional specific suffix required to form this tense.
The suffix is a " t" which is placed between the reported tense's suffix ( -miş -mış -müş -muş) and the personal suffixes.
This explanation could appear a bit complicate but it's extremely simple.
A couple of examples will clear any doubt.
AFFERMATIVE FORM
base past suffix Past perfect suffix Personal suffix
I had gone: (Ben) git miş t im
Gitmiştim
They had gone (onlar) git miş ler di
Gitmişlerdi
She had read (o) Oku muş t u
Okumuştu
NEGATIVE FORM
The negative form is obtained by placing the negative suffix -ma -me between the base and the past suffix ( -mış -miş ) respectively.
A few examples will help better understand:
He hadn't gone: Gitmemisti
We hadn't seen him: Onu görmemiştik
You hadn't taken it: Onu almamıştınız
They hadn't spoken to him: Onunla konuşmamışlardı
Needless to remind you here that the negative suffixes -ma -me are not chosen at random but are linked to the infinitive stem, according to vowel harmony rule.
At this stage this concept should be clear but it is useful to refresh it from time to time.
( End of part 1)
