If proverbs are where Turkish stores its eternal truths, the converb is the tool that lets each truth fit into a breath. A converb is a non-finite verb form — -(y)ArAk, -(y)IncA, -mAdAn, the reduplicated -(y)A …-(y)A, -(y)ken — that turns a whole subordinate clause (“having done X”, “without doing X”, “as soon as X”, “by repeatedly doing X”) into one suffixed word with no separate conjunction and no repeated subject. English needs a clause; Turkish needs a suffix. Proverbs exploit this to the hilt, and they pair it constantly with the conditional -sA (“if”). The eight sayings below are all genuine traditional, anonymous, public-domain atasözleri; the grammatical analysis is written for this guide. Read them as a set and the architecture of non-finite chaining in fixed expressions becomes visible.
The -mAdAn converb: “without …-ing”
The negative converb -mAdAn packs a whole “without (first) doing X” clause into one word, with no separate “without” and no repeated subject. Like every converb it marks tense, person and polarity only once — on the final verb of the saying.
Düşünmeden konuşan, pişman olur.
One who speaks without thinking comes to regret it.
Here the relevant converb is the negative one, -mAdAn (“without …-ing”): düşünmeden = düşün- (“think”) + -mAdAn, “without thinking”. In one word it carries the whole clause “without (first) thinking”, with no subject and no separate “without”. The subject is supplied by the participle konuşan (“the one who speaks”), and the moral lands on the bare aorist pişman olur (“becomes regretful”, as a rule). Note the vowel harmony in -mAdAn: after the front vowel of düşün, it surfaces as -meden, never -madan — see non-finite/converb-madan.
Sora sora Bağdat bulunur.
By asking and asking, one reaches even Baghdad.
The reduplicated converb sora sora (from sormak, “to ask”) is built on -(y)A doubled — a special intensive that means “by repeatedly asking”. Doubling a converb signals a drawn-out, persistent process. The passive aorist bulunur (“is found”) closes it with no named agent, because the truth is universal: keep asking and any destination is reachable. This reduplicated converb + aorist shape is one of the two master templates of Turkish proverbs.
The -(y)ArAk converb: “by …-ing”, manner and means
-(y)ArAk describes the manner or means of the main action: “by doing X”, “while doing X”. It answers how?
Üzüm üzüme baka baka kararır.
Grape by grape, watching one another, they ripen (darken).
The doubled converb baka baka (from bakmak, “to look”) means “by continually looking at one another” — the -(y)A …-(y)A reduplication again, signalling sustained, repeated looking. The aorist kararır (“turns dark, ripens”) seals the general truth: people become like the company they keep, the way grapes on a bunch ripen together by mutual influence. The dative üzüme (“at the grape”) marks what is being looked at — Turkish puts that relationship in a case ending, not a preposition.
Görerek öğrenmek, işiterek öğrenmekten iyidir.
Learning by seeing is better than learning by hearing.
Two clean -(y)ArAk converbs in parallel: görerek (“by seeing”) and işiterek (“by hearing”). Each modifies the infinitive öğrenmek (“to learn”), so the whole phrases görerek öğrenmek and işiterek öğrenmek are nominalized comparisons. The ablative işiterek öğrenmekten (“than learning by hearing”) marks the standard of comparison — Turkish builds “better than X” with the ablative case plus iyidir, covered in complex/conditional-real only tangentially; the point here is that -(y)ArAk is the cleanest way to say “by …-ing”. See non-finite/converb-arak.
The -(y)IncA converb: “as soon as / when”
-(y)IncA marks a triggering event: “when X happens / as soon as X happens, then Y”. It packs a whole temporal clause into one word.
Damdan düşen, damdan düşenin halini bilir.
One who has fallen off a roof knows the state of another who has fallen off a roof.
This one runs on participles rather than -(y)IncA, but it sets up the contrast nicely: damdan düşen = “the one who fell from the roof” (the -(y)An participle plus ablative damdan). Compare the converb version below, which moves the same idea into a when-clause.
İş işten geçince, akıl başa gelir.
When the deed is past doing, the wisdom comes — too late.
Here is the converb in action: geçince = geç- (“pass”) + -(y)IncA, “when it passes / once it is past”. The fixed phrase iş işten geçince (“when the matter has passed beyond doing”) is a single temporal clause compressed into two words plus one suffix. The idiom akıl başa gelir (“sense comes to the head”) closes on the aorist. The lesson — hindsight arrives only after it is useless — is built entirely on the as-soon-as logic of -(y)IncA. See non-finite/converb-inca.
The conditional -sA: “if” baked into a proverb
Proverbs love the real conditional -sA, often paired with a converb or set against a second clause for contrast. The conditional states the rule’s precondition.
Bakarsan bağ, bakmazsan dağ olur.
If you tend it, it becomes a vineyard; if you don't, it becomes a wild mountain.
A perfect symmetrical conditional. Bakarsan = bak- + aorist -r + conditional -sA + 2sg -n, “if you (regularly) tend”; its negative twin bakmazsan = bak- + negative aorist -mAz + -sA + -n, “if you do not tend”. The two outcomes — bağ (“vineyard”) and dağ (“mountain”, i.e. wild scrubland) — sit with olur (“becomes”) supplying one verb for both halves. The whole moral of stewardship is built on a single aorist-conditional contrast; this real-conditional pattern is detailed in complex/conditional-real.
Gülme komşuna, gelir başına.
Don't laugh at your neighbour — it will come to your own head too.
No converb here, but a beautifully compressed conditional meaning with no “if” word at all. The negative imperative gülme (“don’t laugh”) plus the dative komşuna (“at your neighbour”) is implicitly conditional: if you laugh, then gelir başına (“it comes to your head”) — the aorist gelir carrying the “will” reading, and the postposed dative başına (“to your head”) landing the warning. The implied logic is “(if you mock another’s misfortune,) the same will befall you.” Turkish lets the imperative itself do the conditional work, no eğer required.
Why proverbs are converb factories
Step back and the pattern is unmistakable. A proverb has to be short, memorable, and rhythmic, and the converb is the most economical clause-builder Turkish owns: it deletes the subject, deletes the conjunction, deletes the repeated tense, and leaves one stressed syllable carrying a whole subordinate idea. Stack two of them and you have a complete moral argument in five or six words. The conditional -sA then supplies the “if … then …” skeleton that so many sayings need. Master the converb-plus-conditional toolkit and you can not only decode unfamiliar proverbs at sight — you can hear why they sound like proverbs, while a clumsy ve-joined paraphrase does not.
Common mistakes
These are real errors English speakers make when reading or producing converb-heavy proverbs.
❌ Düşünmeden, sonra konuşan pişman olur.
Incorrect — inserting 'sonra' and a comma breaks the single converb clause; -mAdAn already means 'without (first) doing', so no extra word is needed.
✅ Düşünmeden konuşan, pişman olur.
One who speaks without thinking comes to regret it.
❌ İş işten geçerek, akıl başa gelir.
Incorrect — geçerek (-ArAk, 'by passing') answers 'how', but the proverb needs the trigger 'when it passes': geçince (-IncA).
✅ İş işten geçince, akıl başa gelir.
When the deed is past doing, the wisdom comes — too late.
❌ Bakarsın bağ, bakmazsın dağ olur.
Incorrect — bakarsın/bakmazsın are plain aorist 'you tend/don't tend'; the conditional needs -sA: bakarsan/bakmazsan ('if you tend/don't').
✅ Bakarsan bağ, bakmazsan dağ olur.
If you tend it, it becomes a vineyard; if you don't, it becomes a mountain.
❌ Üzüm üzüme bakarak kararır.
Weaker — a single bakarak loses the sustained, mutual sense; the doubled baka baka conveys 'by continually looking at one another'.
✅ Üzüm üzüme baka baka kararır.
Grape by grape, watching one another, they ripen.
Key takeaways
- Every proverb here is a traditional, anonymous, public-domain atasözü; only the analysis is original.
- The converb packs a whole subordinate clause into one word with no conjunction and no repeated subject — the engine of proverb economy.
- Four converbs to recognise: -mAdAn (“without …-ing”, düşünmeden), -(y)ArAk (“by …-ing”, görerek), -(y)IncA (“when / as soon as”, geçince), and the reduplicated -(y)A …-(y)A (sustained process, sora sora, baka baka).
- -(y)IncA answers when? (a trigger); -(y)ArAk answers how? (a manner) — do not swap them.
- The real conditional -sA supplies the “if … then …” frame (bakarsan … bakmazsan …), and an imperative can carry conditional force with no eğer at all (Gülme komşuna, gelir başına).
- The cardinal English-speaker error is missing the converb — always unpack the hidden clause inside -(y)Ip / -(y)ArAk / -(y)IncA / -mAdAn before translating.
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Start learning Turkish→Related Topics
- Atasözleri: Proverbs Analyzed (B1)B1 —
- Converbs: Linking Clauses by SuffixB1 — How Turkish chains and subordinates clauses with adverbial verb suffixes — -(y)Ip, -(y)ArAk, -(y)IncA, -ken, -mAdAn, -DIkçA — instead of conjunctions.
- Real Conditions: -(y)sA on TensesB2 — Factual, open conditions formed by clipping -(y)sA onto a finished tense — gelirse, geliyorsa, geldiyse, gelecekse — with the result clause in the aorist or future.
- Atasözleri II: The Gnomic Aorist (B2)B2 — A second curated set of traditional Turkish proverbs annotated to showcase the gnomic aorist — the tense of timeless truths — along with the compact conditional and relative structures that folk wisdom is built from.