Aorist (Simple Present / Habitual): -er/-ir/-ar/-ır
Turkish has a dedicated tense for things that are generally true — habits, facts about the world, promises — completely separate from the tense for things happening right now. It’s called the aorist (geniş zaman, “the broad tense”), and it’s one of the first places where Turkish verb endings stop being perfectly uniform.
What this tense does
The aorist describes what regularly happens, what’s generally true, or what someone always/ never does — not a specific action in progress:
- Her sabah kahve içerim. — I drink coffee every morning. (habit)
- Güneş doğudan doğar, batıdan batar. — The sun rises in the east, sets in the west. (general truth)
- Türkçe öğrenciler çok çalışırlar. — Turkish students study hard. (characteristic)
It also covers promises, predictions, and — very commonly — polite requests and offers phrased as questions:
- Kapıyı açar mısınız? — Could you open the door? (literally “do you open the door?”)
- Size yardım ederim. — I’ll help you. (a promise/offer, not a scheduled plan)
The contrast with the present continuous (-iyor) is the single biggest thing to get right: pişiririm (“I cook,” a fact about me) versus pişiriyorum (“I am cooking,” right now). A Turkish speaker who says Sigara içmem means “I don’t smoke” as a general fact about their life, not “I’m not smoking at this particular second.”
Forming it
The aorist suffix has four possible shapes, and which one a verb takes depends on how its stem ends — this is the first tense where that choice isn’t fully predictable from vowel harmony alone.
| Stem type | Suffix | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Ends in a vowel | bare -r | oku- → okur (reads) |
| One syllable, ends in a consonant | -Ar (two-way: -ar/-er) | bak- → bakar (looks) |
| Two+ syllables, ends in a consonant | -Ir (four-way: -ır/-ir/-ur/-ür) | konuş- → konuşur (speaks) |
| One of 13 irregular short verbs | -Ir instead of the expected -Ar | gel- → gelir (comes) |
Personal endings then attach after the aorist suffix itself, harmonizing with whichever vowel that suffix ended up with:
| Person | Front-vowel example (sev-, to love) | Back-vowel example (bak-, to look) |
|---|---|---|
| ben (I) | severim | bakarım |
| sen (you) | seversin | bakarsın |
| o (he/she/it) | sever | bakar |
| biz (we) | severiz | bakarız |
| siz (you, pl./formal) | seversiniz | bakarsınız |
| onlar (they) | severler | bakarlar |
The 13 irregular verbs. A small, closed set of short, frequent, consonant-ending verbs breaks the “one syllable → -Ar” rule and takes -Ir instead: almak (alır, to take), bilmek (bilir, to know), bulmak (bulur, to find), durmak (durur, to stop), gelmek (gelir, to come), görmek (görür, to see), kalmak (kalır, to stay), olmak (olur, to be/become), ölmek (ölür, to die), sanmak (sanır, to think/suppose), varmak (varır, to arrive), vermek (verir, to give), and vurmak (vurur, to hit). There’s no shortcut here beyond memorizing the list — it’s short enough that repeated exposure takes care of it quickly.
The negative is irregular
The aorist doesn’t negate the normal way (inserting -me-/-ma- before the ending). Instead, the entire affirmative suffix is replaced by a separate suffix, -mez/-maz, and even that has its own quirk: the final -z disappears in the ben and biz forms.
| Person | Front-vowel example (gel-, to come) | Back-vowel example (bak-, to look) |
|---|---|---|
| ben (I) | gelmem | bakmam |
| sen (you) | gelmezsin | bakmazsın |
| o (he/she/it) | gelmez | bakmaz |
| biz (we) | gelmeyiz | bakmayız |
| siz (you, pl./formal) | gelmezsiniz | bakmazsınız |
| onlar (they) | gelmezler | bakmazlar |
- Ben et yemem. — I don’t eat meat.
- Sen hiç yalan söylemezsin. — You never tell lies.
- Bu dükkân pazar günleri açılmaz. — This shop doesn’t open on Sundays.
Questions
Questions add the separate particle mı/mi/mu/mü right after the aorist-plus-person form, with the usual four-way vowel harmony:
- Kahve içer misin? — Do you drink coffee?
- Erken kalkar mısınız? — Do you get up early? / Could you get up early?
- Sigara içmez misin? — Don’t you smoke?
Examples
- Her sabah kahve içerim. — I drink coffee every morning.
- Türkçe öğrenciler çok çalışırlar. — Turkish students study hard.
- Kapıyı açar mısınız? — Could you open the door?
- Ben et yemem. — I don’t eat meat.
- Güneş doğudan doğar, batıdan batar. — The sun rises in the east, sets in the west.
- Sen hiç yalan söylemezsin. — You never tell lies.
- Bu dükkân pazar günleri açılmaz. — This shop doesn’t open on Sundays.
Try it yourself
Babi, Speafy’s AI tutor, will have you describe your own habits and routines until the aorist’s four suffix shapes stop feeling like a puzzle, and Speafy’s FSRS-based flashcards drill the 13 irregular verbs and the suppletive negative specifically, since those are the two spots where this tense actually bites.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between pişiririm and pişiriyorum in Turkish?
Pişiririm (aorist) means "I cook" as a general fact about you - you know how, or you do it as a habit - without saying anything is cooking right now. Pişiriyorum (present continuous) means "I am cooking" at this exact moment. Mixing them up is one of the most common beginner slips in Turkish.
How do I say "I don't smoke" in Turkish?
Sigara içmem - the aorist negative of içmek ("to drink/smoke"), built on the irregular -mez/-maz negative rather than the regular -ir/-ar suffix, with the first-person form dropping its final z: içmem, not içmezim.
Why does gelmek take gelir instead of gelar in the aorist?
Gelmek is one of 13 short, consonant-ending verbs (along with almak, bilmek, bulmak, durmak, görmek, kalmak, olmak, ölmek, sanmak, varmak, vermek, and vurmak) that take the four-way -Ir suffix instead of the two-way -Ar/-Er that other one-syllable consonant-ending verbs take - so gelir, not the otherwise-expected geler.
