Time Clauses: -diği zaman, -madığı zaman & -diktan sonra ("when" / "after")
Neither “when” nor “after” exists as its own word in Turkish the way it does in English. Both ideas are built instead from the -dik participle you already met in its own lesson - one version sits in front of the noun zaman (“time”), the other glues straight onto the postposition sonra (“after”).
What these clauses do
-DIğI zaman marks “when X happens/happened” - it’s tense-neutral by itself, so the actual time reference comes from the rest of the sentence, not from the suffix:
- Ben eve geldiğim zaman, herkes uyuyordu. — When I got home, everyone was asleep.
- Hava soğuduğu zaman, kalın kıyafetler giyeriz. — When the weather gets cold, we wear thick clothes.
-MADIğI zaman is simply the negative of the same pattern - “when X doesn’t/didn’t happen”:
- Ders çalışmadığım zaman, kendimi suçlu hissediyorum. — When I don’t study, I feel guilty.
-DIktan sonra marks strict sequence - “after X happens/happened,” with the first action fully finished before the next one starts:
- Yemeğimizi yedikten sonra dışarı çıktık. — After we ate our meal, we went outside.
The first two describe a moment or a recurring condition; the third describes one thing following another in order.
Forming it
-DIğI zaman is built exactly like the object participle plus possessive, with zaman tacked on afterward. The possessive ending agrees with whoever’s action is being timed:
| Person (who does/did the action) | Form (gel-, to come) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| ben (I) | geldiğim zaman | when I come/came |
| sen (you) | geldiğin zaman | when you come/came |
| o (he/she/it) | geldiği zaman | when he/she/it comes/came |
| biz (we) | geldiğimiz zaman | when we come/came |
| siz (you, pl./formal) | geldiğiniz zaman | when you (all) come/came |
| onlar (they) | geldikleri zaman | when they come/came |
The negative -madığı zaman inserts -ma/-me before the participle, exactly as it does everywhere else the -dik suffix shows up: çalış-ma-dığım zaman → çalışmadığım zaman (“when I don’t/didn’t work”).
-DIktan sonra uses the bare -dik suffix - no possessive at all - plus the ablative -tan/-ten and the postposition sonra. It harmonizes the same four ways the plain participle does, and devoices after a voiceless-final stem:
| Last vowel of the stem | Suffix (after voiced sound) | Suffix (after voiceless sound) |
|---|---|---|
| a, ı | -dıktan sonra | -tıktan sonra |
| e, i | -dikten sonra | -tikten sonra |
| o, u | -duktan sonra | -tuktan sonra |
| ö, ü | -dükten sonra | -tükten sonra |
Git- (to go) gives gittikten sonra (“after going”); bak- (to look, voiceless-final) gives baktıktan sonra (“after looking”).
Exceptions worth knowing
-DIktan sonra never takes a possessive ending, unlike -diği zaman. Because sonra is just a postposition meaning “after,” not a noun being possessed the way zaman is, the verb form stays completely invariant no matter who the subject is. If that subject differs from the main clause’s, it’s simply stated as its own word, with the verb form left untouched: Ahmet eve gittikten sonra, biz de yemek yaptık. — After Ahmet went home, we made food too.
The genitive subject before -diği zaman is optional, exactly like it is with the plain -dik participle. (Senin) geldiğin zaman ben hazır olacağım. — When you come, I’ll be ready. The possessive ending on the participle already carries that information by itself.
-Diği zaman doesn’t commit to past, present, or future on its own - only context does. Geldiğim zaman can mean “when I come,” “when I’m coming,” or “when I came,” depending entirely on the tense of the main clause sitting next to it. There’s also a shorter, more compact suffix for “when/as soon as” in everyday speech, -ince/-ınca - that’s its own separate grammar point, not a variant of -diği zaman.
Examples
- Ben eve geldiğim zaman, herkes uyuyordu. — When I got home, everyone was asleep.
- Hava soğuduğu zaman, kalın kıyafetler giyeriz. — When the weather gets cold, we wear thick clothes.
- Ders çalışmadığım zaman, kendimi suçlu hissediyorum. — When I don’t study, I feel guilty. (negative)
- Yağmur yağmadığı zaman çocuklar bahçede oynar. — When it doesn’t rain, the kids play in the garden. (negative)
- Yemeğimizi yedikten sonra dışarı çıktık. — After we ate our meal, we went outside.
- Ahmet eve gittikten sonra, biz de yemek yaptık. — After Ahmet went home, we made food too.
Try it yourself
Babi, Speafy’s AI tutor, will have you swap the same two clauses between -diği zaman and -diktan sonra until the overlap-versus-sequence difference between them stops needing a conscious check, and Speafy’s FSRS-based flashcards keep the “no possessive on -diktan sonra” rule reviewed often enough that it doesn’t quietly drift back toward the pattern the -diği zaman family uses instead.
Frequently asked questions
How do I say "when I get home" in Turkish?
Eve geldiğim zaman. Gel- ("to come") takes the -dik participle (softened to -diğ- before a vowel) plus the first-person possessive -im, then the noun zaman ("time") - literally "at the time of my coming home." The same phrase covers both "when I get home" and "when I got home"; only the surrounding sentence tells you which.
What's the difference between -diği zaman and -diktan sonra in Turkish?
-Diği zaman means "when/at the time X happens," and can describe two events that overlap or coincide closely. -Diktan sonra specifically means "after X happens," marking strict sequence - the first action is fully finished before the second one starts. Eve geldiğim zaman yemek yapıyordum ("when I got home, I was cooking") describes overlap; eve geldikten sonra yemek yaptım ("after I got home, I cooked") describes one thing following the other.
How do I say "when it doesn't rain" in Turkish?
Yağmur yağmadığı zaman. The negative -ma/-me slots in before the -dik participle on yağmak ("to rain"), giving yağmadığı, then zaman follows exactly as it does in the affirmative pattern - no extra rule to learn for the negative version.
