Three negations: -me- in the verb, değil and yok
Turkish has three negations, and they do not stand in for one another. A verb is negated by inserting -ma- / -me- right after the stem, before tense and person: git-me-di-m — go-not-past-I. Which vowel it takes is decided by harmony: after a, ı, o, u it is -ma-, after e, i, ö, ü it is -me-. For example: “Bugün çay içmiyorum” — I am not drinking tea today. A rule from the Turkish course: worked out on examples, not…
How it works
Turkish has three negations, and they do not stand in for one another. A verb is negated by inserting -ma- / -me- right after the stem, before tense and person: git-me-di-m — go-not-past-I. Which vowel it takes is decided by harmony: after a, ı, o, u it is -ma-, after e, i, ö, ü it is -me-.
Before -yor that vowel narrows, and the set becomes -mıyor / -miyor / -muyor / -müyor: not 'gelmeyorum' but gelmiyorum; okuyorum becomes okumuyorum. At the same time the softening of the stem consonant disappears — gidiyorum (I am going), but gitmiyorum (I am not going): t only softens before a vowel, and here an m follows it.
A nominal predicate is negated by a separate word, değil: there is no verb in such a phrase, so there is nowhere to insert -me-. The personal ending moves onto it: öğrenciyim (I am a student) becomes öğrenci değilim. The third case is yok, the partner of var: param var becomes param yok, and no değil is needed beside it.
The practical conclusion: before negating, look at the last word of the phrase. A verb — insert -me-; a name or a quality — add değil; var — replace it with yok.
By example
- Bugün çay içmiyorumI am not drinking tea today
- Ben iyi değilimI am not well
- Bende para yokI have no money
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
Değil vs yok?
Turkish has three negations, and they do not stand in for one another. A verb is negated by inserting -ma- / -me- right after the stem, before tense and person: git-me-di-m — go-not-past-I. Which vowel it takes is decided by harmony: after a, ı, o, u it is -ma-, after e, i, ö, ü it is -me-.
Why gelmiyorum and not gelmeyorum?
Before -yor that vowel narrows, and the set becomes -mıyor / -miyor / -muyor / -müyor: not 'gelmeyorum' but gelmiyorum; okuyorum becomes okumuyorum. At the same time the softening of the stem consonant disappears — gidiyorum (I am going), but gitmiyorum (I am not going): t only softens before a…
Where -me goes inside the Turkish verb?
A nominal predicate is negated by a separate word, değil: there is no verb in such a phrase, so there is nowhere to insert -me-. The personal ending moves onto it: öğrenciyim (I am a student) becomes öğrenci değilim. The third case is yok, the partner of var: param var becomes param yok, and no…
How to say I have no money in Turkish?
The practical conclusion: before negating, look at the last word of the phrase. A verb — insert -me-; a name or a quality — add değil; var — replace it with yok.
Değil or yok at the end of a Turkish sentence?
The practical conclusion: before negating, look at the last word of the phrase. A verb — insert -me-; a name or a quality — add değil; var — replace it with yok.
What does it look like in an example sentence Turkish?
“Bugün çay içmiyorum” — I am not drinking tea today. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.