The broad present on -ir: not "now" but "in general"
Until now two tenses have carried you: -yor for what is happening now, and -acak for what will be. Between them stands a third, without which Turkish speech sounds foreign — geniş zaman, the broad present on -r / -ir / -ar. English splits the same two jobs with two forms: 'it is snowing now' is your -yor, and 'it snows in winter' is this one. It is not about the moment but about the properties of the world: what…
How it works
Until now two tenses have carried you: -yor for what is happening now, and -acak for what will be. Between them stands a third, without which Turkish speech sounds foreign — geniş zaman, the broad present on -r / -ir / -ar. English splits the same two jobs with two forms: 'it is snowing now' is your -yor, and 'it snows in winter' is this one. It is not about the moment but about the properties of the world: what always happens, what a person is able to do, what he promises.
The difference shows on a pair: Kışın kar yağıyor means 'this winter, right now, snow is falling', and Kışın kar yağar — 'it snows in winter, as a rule'. About a bee they say arı sokar — bees sting; about a goat keçi kayaya tırmanır — goats climb rocks: not an observation but the nature of the beast. All proverbs live here too: Damlaya damlaya göl olur — drop by drop, a lake.
How to pick the vowel. One-syllable stems usually take -ar/-er: yaz-ar, gel-ir (and a dozen exceptions like alır, bilir, gelir, görür, kalır, olur, ölür, sanır, varır, verir, vurur, yenir — they are learned as a list). Multisyllabic stems always take -ir by the harmony of four: öğren-ir, çalış-ır, konuş-ur, düşün-ür. The negative breaks the rule completely: -mem, -mez — bilmem, gelmez, istemem. That is why the soft refusal sounds pek istemem, not istemiyorum.
The second job of this tense is the promise and politeness. Zamanında orada olurum carries more weight than olacağım: the broad present says 'that is how I do things', the future only 'that is how it will turn out'. Ben tekrar ararım, yardım ederim, çabuk öğrenirim — every promise in a résumé and in conversation stands here. And the request too: açar mısınız, gösterir misiniz — a question in the broad present, and it is politer than an order.
Table
| the form | when | example | translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| -ar / -er | a one-syllable stem | yazar | writes (in general) |
| -ir / -ır / -ur / -ür | a multisyllabic stem | öğrenir | learns, takes in |
| -r | a stem ending in a vowel | bekler, anlar | waits, understands |
| -mem / -mezsin / -mez | the negative | istemem | I (in general) do not want |
| -r mısınız | a polite request | gösterir misiniz | would you show |
| -ardı / -irdi | the same in the past | kalırdık | we used to stay |
By example
- Kışın burada çok kar yağarIt snows a lot here in winter
- Merak etmeyin, çabuk öğrenirimDo not worry, I am a quick learner
- Bu saatte otobüs gelmezBuses do not run at this hour
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
-yor vs -ir in Turkish?
Until now two tenses have carried you: -yor for what is happening now, and -acak for what will be. Between them stands a third, without which Turkish speech sounds foreign — geniş zaman, the broad present on -r / -ir / -ar. English splits the same two jobs with two forms: 'it is snowing now' is…
What the Turkish broad present is?
The difference shows on a pair: Kışın kar yağıyor means 'this winter, right now, snow is falling', and Kışın kar yağar — 'it snows in winter, as a rule'. About a bee they say arı sokar — bees sting; about a goat keçi kayaya tırmanır — goats climb rocks: not an observation but the nature of the…
Why istemiyorum and istemem differ?
How to pick the vowel. One-syllable stems usually take -ar/-er: yaz-ar, gel-ir (and a dozen exceptions like alır, bilir, gelir, görür, kalır, olur, ölür, sanır, varır, verir, vurur, yenir — they are learned as a list). Multisyllabic stems always take -ir by the harmony of four: öğren-ir, çalış-ır…
How to ask politely with r mısınız?
The second job of this tense is the promise and politeness. Zamanında orada olurum carries more weight than olacağım: the broad present says 'that is how I do things', the future only 'that is how it will turn out'. Ben tekrar ararım, yardım ederim, çabuk öğrenirim — every promise in a résumé and…
What does it look like in an example sentence Turkish?
“Kışın burada çok kar yağar” — It snows a lot here in winter. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.