Telling a story about something that actually happened to you is the moment all your past-tense grammar has to work together. A folktale runs on the evidential -mIş because the teller did not witness it; a personal anecdote is the opposite — you were there, you vouch for every event, so it runs on the witnessed past -DI. But events alone are a list, not a story. What turns a list into a narrative is the layer underneath them: the background — what was already going on, the weather, the mood, what you were doing when the key event hit. That background is carried by the past continuous -(I)yordu, and the events are stitched to it with converbs. The text below is an original anecdote written for this guide. As you read it, feel the two layers: the -(I)yordu scenery and the -DI events that punch through it. Read it whole first, then work through the annotations.
The anecdote
Geçen yaz arkadaşımla küçük bir kasabaya gitmiştik.
Last summer my friend and I had gone to a little town.
Hava çok sıcaktı ve sokaklar bomboştu; herkes evine çekilmişti.
It was very hot and the streets were completely empty; everyone had withdrawn into their homes.
Biz bir kafede oturmuş, soğuk bir şeyler içiyorduk.
We were sitting in a café, drinking something cold.
Tam kalkacakken, yan masadaki yaşlı bir adam bize doğru döndü.
Just as we were about to get up, an old man at the next table turned toward us.
Gülümseyip 'Siz buralı değilsiniz galiba,' dedi.
Smiling, he said, 'You're not from around here, I suppose.'
Biz şaşırınca, adam kasabanın eski bir hikâyesini anlatmaya başladı.
When we were taken aback, the man began to tell an old story about the town.
Onu dinlerken saatlerin nasıl geçtiğini fark etmedik bile.
While we listened to him, we didn't even notice how the hours passed.
Sonunda kalkıp ona teşekkür ettik ve o günü hiç unutmadık.
In the end we got up, thanked him, and never forgot that day.
Line-by-line
Line 1 — "Geçen yaz arkadaşımla küçük bir kasabaya gitmiştik." The story opens one step before the main timeline, with the pluperfect -mIştI: gitmiştik = git(mek) + -miş + -ti + -k → "we had gone." The -mIş here is not evidential — stacked with the copular past -ti, it builds the "past-before-the-past," setting up the scene that the rest of the anecdote will unfold within. Arkadaşımla = arkadaşım ("my friend") + instrumental -la ("with"). Küçük bir kasabaya ("to a little town"): adjective + bir + noun + dative. This single sentence frames the whole episode.
Line 2 — "Hava çok sıcaktı ve sokaklar bomboştu; herkes evine çekilmişti." Pure background, and notice every verb is a state, not an event. Sıcaktı = sıcak ("hot") + copular past -tı → "it was hot"; bomboştu = bomboş ("completely empty," an intensified reduplication of boş) + -tu → "were empty." These are zero-copula adjectives wearing the past copula -(y)DI — the way Turkish says "it was [adjective]." Then çekilmişti ("had withdrawn"), another pluperfect, layering in what had already happened. No -DI event verbs yet: the curtain is still rising.
Line 3 — "Biz bir kafede oturmuş, soğuk bir şeyler içiyorduk." Now the past continuous -(I)yordu, the workhorse of narrative background: içiyorduk = iç(mek) + present-continuous -iyor + copular past -du + -k → "we were drinking." This is the central form to internalise: -(I)yor (ongoing) + -DI (past) = "was/were -ing," an action in progress as the scene is set, not a completed event. Oturmuş here is a converb-like participle ("having sat / seated") describing our posture — we were settled and drinking. The whole line is scenery: this is what was going on when the story's first event arrives.
Line 4 — "Tam kalkacakken, yan masadaki yaşlı bir adam bize doğru döndü." The first real event, and watch the tense flip. Kalkacakken = kalk(mak) + future -acak + the converb -ken → "just as (we were) about to get up" — a "on the very point of" time clause, with tam ("just / exactly") sharpening it. Then the event itself: döndü = dön(mek) + -DI → "he turned." This is the foreground: a single, bounded, witnessed action, so it takes the plain past -DI, punching cleanly through the -(I)yordu background of line 3. Yan masadaki = "at the next table" (yan masa + locative -da + the relational -ki "the one at"). Bize doğru = "toward us" (doğru governs the dative bize).
Line 5 — "Gülümseyip 'Siz buralı değilsiniz galiba,' dedi." A converb chain sequences the action: gülümseyip = gülümse(mek) ("to smile") + the -(y)Ip converb → "smiling / having smiled, and …," linking directly into dedi ("he said," plain past). The -(y)Ip carries no tense of its own — dedi supplies it. Inside the quote, buralı değilsiniz ("you're not from here") is a verbless negated sentence (buralı + değil + -siniz), and galiba ("I suppose / probably") hedges it politely. The converb keeps the prose moving without a clumsy "he smiled and then he said."
Line 6 — "Biz şaşırınca, adam kasabanın eski bir hikâyesini anlatmaya başladı." The -(y)IncA converb gives the "when / upon" relation: şaşırınca = şaşır(mak) ("to be surprised") + -ınca → "when we were taken aback / upon our surprise." It compresses a whole "when we …" clause into one tenseless word, taking its time-reference from the main verb. The main event is anlatmaya başladı ("began to tell"): başlamak ("to begin") governs the dative of a verbal noun (anlatma + -ya) — "began to telling." Kasabanın eski bir hikâyesini is a definite izafet ("the town's old story") in the accusative. Details of -(y)IncA at the -(y)IncA converb.
Line 7 — "Onu dinlerken saatlerin nasıl geçtiğini fark etmedik bile." The -ken converb marks simultaneity: dinlerken = dinle(mek) ("to listen") + aorist -r + -ken → "while listening." Background-while-foreground in a single word. The main clause is a negated past event: fark etmedik = fark etmek ("to notice") + negative -me + -DI + -k → "we didn't notice." The object is a nominalized clause: saatlerin nasıl geçtiğini = "how the hours passed" (geç(mek) + -tiği participle + possessive + accusative). And bile ("even") at the end intensifies: "we didn't even notice." This line fuses everything — a -ken background frame, a -DIK nominalized object, a -DI foreground event.
Line 8 — "Sonunda kalkıp ona teşekkür ettik ve o günü hiç unutmadık." The close. Sonunda ("in the end / finally") signals the wrap-up. Another -(y)Ip chain: kalkıp ("having got up") leads into teşekkür ettik ("we thanked," plain past). Then a coordinated final event with ve: o günü hiç unutmadık = "we never forgot that day" (o gün + accusative; hiç "(not) at all / never"; unut(mak) + negative + -DI + -k). Both main verbs are foreground -DI events — the story lands firmly in the witnessed, vouched-for past, exactly where a personal anecdote belongs. The contrast with the -mIş world of a folktale is at the folktale -mIş.
Common mistakes
❌ Biz bir kafede oturduk ve soğuk bir şeyler içtik, tam kalktık, adam döndü.
Flat — every verb in the plain past makes the background and the event indistinguishable, like a bare list. Use -(I)yordu for the ongoing backdrop.
✅ Biz bir kafede oturmuş soğuk bir şeyler içiyorduk; tam kalkacakken adam bize döndü.
We were sitting in a café drinking something cold; just as we were about to get up, the man turned to us.
❌ Hava çok sıcak oldu ve sokaklar boş oldu.
Wrong — 'it was hot / empty' is a state, not a becoming. Put the past copula on the adjective: sıcaktı, boştu.
✅ Hava çok sıcaktı ve sokaklar boştu.
It was very hot and the streets were empty.
❌ Biz şaşırdık zaman, adam hikâye anlattı.
Incorrect — 'when' isn't a finite clause here; use the -(y)IncA converb: şaşırınca.
✅ Biz şaşırınca, adam hikâye anlatmaya başladı.
When we were surprised, the man began to tell a story.
❌ Gülümsedi ve dedi.
Stilted for a same-subject sequence — chain it with -(y)Ip: gülümseyip dedi.
✅ Gülümseyip dedi.
Smiling, he said…
Key takeaways
- A personal anecdote runs on the witnessed past -DI — you were there and vouch for the events — in contrast to the folktale's evidential -mIş.
- The past continuous -(I)yordu carries the background: actions already in progress, the scene being set (içiyorduk). The plain -DI carries the foreground events that interrupt it (döndü, dedi).
- "It was [adjective]" is the past copula -(y)DI on an adjective: sıcaktı, boştu — a state, not an action.
- Converbs sequence and frame the action: -(y)Ip ("and then": gülümseyip dedi), -(y)IncA ("when": şaşırınca), -ken ("while": dinlerken). Only the final verb carries tense.
- Don't tell a story with a flat string of -DI verbs; layering -(I)yordu background under -DI events is what makes it feel like a story.
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Start learning Turkish→Related Topics
- The Definite Past -DI (Witnessed)A1 — The definite past -DI (geldim 'I came', yaptı 'he did') reports events the speaker directly witnessed or vouches for as fact — and it stands in deliberate contrast to the evidential -mIş, which marks hearsay and inference.
- Past of Tenses: -Iyordu, -Irdi, -AcAktI, -mIştIB1 — Turkish builds its imperfect, habitual-past, future-in-past and pluperfect simply by stacking the copular past -(y)DI onto a primary tense: geliyordu 'he was coming', gelirdi 'he used to come', gelecekti 'he was going to come', gelmişti 'he had come'.
- The Converb -(y)IncA ('when / as soon as')B1 — How -(y)IncA forms the everyday 'when' clause with no tense at all, replacing a finite conjunction-based clause.
- Folktale Excerpt: The Storytelling -mIş (B1)B1 —