The converb -DIkçA expresses proportional, open-ended correlation between two events: as one keeps happening, the other keeps happening too. Sen çalıştıkça başarırsın — "the more you work, the more you succeed". English splits this single idea across three phrasings — "as long as", "whenever", and "the more … the more" — but Turkish packs all of them into one suffix. The unifying thread is repetition over time: not a single point, but an ongoing, scaling relationship.
What -DIkçA does
-DIkçA attaches to a verb stem and links the clause to the main clause with the sense "to the extent that / as long as / each time / the more". The verb carries no tense; the main verb (usually a present, aorist, or future) supplies the time frame. The defining feature is that -DIkçA is not a one-off "when" — it describes a process that recurs or intensifies.
Onu gördükçe özlüyorum.
Every time I see him, I miss him (more).
Zaman geçtikçe alıştım.
As time went by, I got used to it.
Sustukça daha çok merak ettiler.
The more he stayed silent, the more curious they got.
In zaman geçtikçe alıştım, the getting-used-to is not tied to one moment but tracks the passing of time — gradual, cumulative. That cumulative, "as-it-keeps-going" reading is the heart of -DIkçA and is exactly what distinguishes it from the point-in-time -(y)IncA.
The three English faces of -DIkçA
The same suffix surfaces in English as three different constructions depending on context. Recognizing all three as one Turkish form is the key insight.
"As long as / so long as" — the correlation holds for the duration of the condition:
Sen yanımda oldukça hiçbir şeyden korkmam.
As long as you're by my side, I'm afraid of nothing.
"Whenever / every time" — the correlation repeats with each occurrence:
Bu şarkıyı duydukça çocukluğumu hatırlarım.
Whenever I hear this song, I remember my childhood.
"The more … the more" — the two scale together, often reinforced by daha in the main clause:
İnsan okudukça daha çok öğrenmek ister.
The more one reads, the more one wants to learn.
Yağmur yağdıkça hava soğudu.
The more it rained, the colder it got.
These are not three suffixes — they are one. Whether you translate it "as long as", "whenever", or "the more", the Turkish is -DIkçA. For the wider toolkit of paired, scaling structures, see comparison and correlation.
The form: -DIK + -çA
-DIkçA is the participle -DIK (the same one behind relative clauses and noun complements) plus the equative/limitative suffix -çA. Because it is built on -DIK, it inherits both of that suffix's consonant alternations:
- The D hardens to t after a voiceless consonant (p, ç, t, k, s, ş, h, f), and stays d after a vowel or voiced consonant.
- The final k of -DIK may soften to ğ before the vowel of -çA... but here it does not, because -çA begins with a consonant, so the k is preserved: -dıkça, not -dığça.
It harmonizes four ways in the -DIK vowel (ı, i, u, ü), and -çA then takes a or e by back/front harmony:
| Stem ends in | Suffix | Example |
|---|---|---|
| voiced / vowel, back | -dıkça / -dukça | oku-dukça → okudukça |
| voiced / vowel, front | -dikçe / -dükçe | gör-dükçe → gördükçe |
| voiceless, back | -tıkça / -tukça | bak-tıkça → baktıkça |
| voiceless, front | -tikçe / -tükçe | geç-tikçe → geçtikçe |
So gör- (voiced r) gives gördükçe; geç- (voiceless ç) gives geçtikçe; sus- (voiceless s) gives sustukça; yap- (voiceless p) gives yaptıkça; oku- (vowel) gives okudukça.
Yıllar geçtikçe, onu daha iyi anladım.
As the years passed, I understood him better.
Yaptıkça öğrenirsin, korkma.
You learn as you do it / by doing it again and again — don't be afraid.
The participle -DIK that anchors this form is the same one explained on the -DIK participle; recognizing it there makes the consonant changes here feel automatic rather than arbitrary.
-DIkçA vs -(y)IncA: process versus point
Both can appear near "when" in a loose translation, but they encode opposite things:
- -(y)IncA = a single point: "when / once X happens", then Y.
- -DIkçA = an open-ended process: "as / the more / each time X keeps happening", Y tracks it.
Onu görünce sevindim.
When I saw him, I was glad. (one occasion)
Onu gördükçe seviniyorum.
Each time I see him, I feel glad. (recurring, cumulative)
If the event happens once and triggers a result, use -(y)IncA. If it recurs or scales, use -DIkçA. Translating -DIkçA as a flat "when" is the single most common error, because it erases the repetition that is its whole point.
Common mistakes
Rendering -DIkçA as a one-off "when" and losing the repetition:
❌ Onu gördükçe tanıdım.
Wrong: -DIkçA means recurring 'each time/as', not a single 'when'; for one occasion use -(y)IncA → onu görünce tanıdım.
✅ Onu görünce tanıdım.
When I saw him, I recognized him.
Failing to harden D to t after a voiceless consonant:
❌ Geçdikçe zaman, unuttum.
Wrong: after voiceless ç the suffix starts with t → geçtikçe.
✅ Zaman geçtikçe unuttum.
As time passed, I forgot.
Wrongly softening the k of -DIK before -çA:
❌ Gördüğçe özlüyorum.
Wrong: -çA starts with a consonant, so the k stays hard → gördükçe.
✅ Gördükçe özlüyorum.
The more I see him, the more I miss him.
Putting a tense on the converb verb:
❌ Çalıştındıkça başarırsın.
Wrong: the converb carries no tense; build it on the bare stem → çalıştıkça.
✅ Çalıştıkça başarırsın.
The more you work, the more you succeed.
Choosing the wrong harmony vowel:
❌ Sustıkça merak ettiler.
Wrong: the rounded stem sus- takes -tukça → sustukça.
✅ Sustukça merak ettiler.
The more he kept silent, the more curious they grew.
Key takeaways
- -DIkçA encodes open-ended, proportional correlation — "as long as / whenever / the more … the more" — always with a sense of repetition or scaling.
- English splits this across three patterns; Turkish unifies them in one suffix.
- It is -DIK + -çA, so it follows the -DIK consonant rules: D → t after a voiceless sound (geçtikçe, sustukça, yaptıkça), d after a vowel/voiced sound (gördükçe, okudukça); the k stays hard before consonant-initial -çA.
- It harmonizes four ways in the -DIK vowel, then -çA takes a/e.
- Do not flatten it to a one-off "when" — that is -(y)IncA; -DIkçA is always the recurring, cumulative relationship.
Now practice Turkish
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Turkish→Related Topics
- 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.
- 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.
- The Object/Factive Participle -DIKB1 — How -DIK plus a possessive suffix relativizes objects and obliques (gördüğüm adam) and nominalizes past/non-future facts in complement clauses.
- Correlative and Proportional DiscourseC1 — How Turkish links two quantities or sides of an argument — the -DIkçA converb for 'the more…the more', ne kadar … o kadar, hem … hem, and bir yandan … öte yandan.