Real Conditional: Aorist Stem + -se/-sa ("If X Happens")

Turkish doesn’t need a separate conditional tense built from scratch. It takes the aorist form you already know — the one for habits and general truths — and simply adds one more ending to turn it into “if X happens.”

What this ending does

The real conditional states an open, genuinely possible condition and what follows from it. It’s the Turkish equivalent of an English “if” clause describing something that might well happen:

• Yağmur yağarsa, evde kalırım. — If it rains, I’ll stay home.
• Param olursa, yeni bir telefon alırım. — If I have money, I’ll buy a new phone.
• Erken kalkarsam, kahvaltı yaparım. — If I wake up early, I’ll make breakfast.

This is different from the bare-stem -se/-sa conditional (e.g. gelse), which is reserved for hypothetical or wishful “if”s that the speaker treats as unlikely, contrary to fact, or purely imagined — that’s its own grammar point. The aorist-based conditional covered here is the everyday, neutral “if,” used constantly in ordinary plans and warnings.

Forming it

Start from the aorist form of the verb (see the aorist lesson for which of its four suffixes a given stem takes), then add -se/-sa — two-way vowel harmony, chosen by the aorist suffix’s own vowel — and finally a personal ending. For most persons the personal ending comes after -se/-sa; for onlar, the plural marker -ler/-lar goes before it instead, the same way it does in the future-in-the-past tense:

So gelmek (to come) gives gelirsem (“if I come”), and bakmak (to look) gives bakarsam (“if I look”). Verbs ending in a vowel work the same way on top of their bare -r aorist: oku- → okursa (“if he/she reads”).

Negation

The negative conditional is built the same way, just starting from the aorist’s irregular negative (-mez/-maz) instead of the affirmative suffix — the -z that disappears in the plain negative aorist’s ben/biz forms stays in place here, because the conditional ending attaches right after it:

• Sinemaya gitmezsek, evde film izleriz. — If we don’t go to the cinema, we’ll watch a movie at home.
• Vaktim olmazsa, gelemem. — If I don’t have time, I can’t come.
• Erken kalkmazsan, geç kalırsın. — If you don’t get up early, you’ll be late.

Questions

A conditional sentence is usually turned into a question by questioning its outcome, not the “if” clause itself — the -se/-sa clause stays as it is, and the regular question particle mı/mi/mu/mü goes on the main clause instead:

• Yağmur yağarsa dışarı çıkar mısın? — If it rains, will you still go out?

Eğer — an optional signpost, not a requirement

Turkish can mark a conditional clause with the word eğer (“if”) at its start, mirroring English word order, but eğer is never required — the -se/-sa ending alone already makes the clause conditional:

• (Eğer) yarın hava güzel olursa, parka gideriz. — If the weather is nice tomorrow, we’ll go to the park.

Dropping eğer changes nothing grammatically; it’s a stylistic choice, often used for extra emphasis or clarity in longer sentences.

Examples

• Yağmur yağarsa, evde kalırım. — If it rains, I’ll stay home.
• Param olursa, yeni bir telefon alırım. — If I have money, I’ll buy a new phone.
• Erken kalkarsam, kahvaltı yaparım. — If I wake up early, I’ll make breakfast.
• Yorulursan, dinlenebilirsin. — If you get tired, you can rest.
• Sinemaya gitmezsek, evde film izleriz. — If we don’t go to the cinema, we’ll watch a movie at home.
• (Eğer) hava güzel olursa, parka gideriz. — If the weather is nice, we’ll go to the park.
• Soru sorarsan, cevaplarım. — If you ask a question, I’ll answer.

Try it yourself

Babi, Speafy’s AI tutor, will have you build “if this, then that” plans and warnings in everyday conversation until attaching -se/-sa onto an aorist form feels automatic, and Speafy’s FSRS-based flashcards keep the onlar form’s reordered plural marker, and the negative conditional’s suppletive -mez/-maz base, from slipping back into the wrong pattern.