The past tense: -dı, and it always means you saw it
Yesterday gets one tail: -dı / -di / -du / -dü. After the voiceless p, ç, t, k, f, h, s, ş it hardens into -tı / -ti / -tu / -tü. Hence yağdı, it rained, and gitti, he left. For example: “Dün pazara gittim” — Yesterday I went to the market. A rule from the Turkish course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
Yesterday gets one tail: -dı / -di / -du / -dü. After the voiceless p, ç, t, k, f, h, s, ş it hardens into -tı / -ti / -tu / -tü. Hence yağdı, it rained, and gitti, he left.
Then the person attaches: -m for I, -n for you, nothing for he, -k for we, -nız for you plural. The word grows rightwards in chunks and reads the same way: git-ti-m, go-past-I.
Now the part English has no slot for. This past belongs to an eyewitness: you use it for what you saw yourself. Retold news takes a second past on -mış, it rained so they say.
So when a Turk switches to -mış, you have just been warned honestly that they were not there.
Table
| person | the ending | gitmek — to go |
|---|---|---|
| ben | -dim / -tim | gittim — I went |
| sen | -din / -tin | gittin — you went |
| o | -di / -ti | gitti — he went |
| biz | -dik / -tik | gittik — we went |
| siz | -diniz / -tiniz | gittiniz — you (pl.) went |
By example
- Dün pazara gittimYesterday I went to the market
- Sabah kar yağdıIt snowed in the morning
- Asansör dün bozulduThe elevator broke down yesterday
How the rule settles in your head
A rule is not memorized from an explanation. It is memorized from an attempt to use it and a mistake — that is why the app delivers it mixed in with words, not as a separate lesson: it resurfaces exactly where you forgot it.
Frequently asked
The past tense: how does it work in Turkish?
Yesterday gets one tail: -dı / -di / -du / -dü. After the voiceless p, ç, t, k, f, h, s, ş it hardens into -tı / -ti / -tu / -tü. Hence yağdı, it rained, and gitti, he left.
What does it look like in an example sentence Turkish?
“Dün pazara gittim” — Yesterday I went to the market. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.