Aorist Vowel Reference (-Ar vs -Ir) | Turkish Grammar

The Turkish aorist — the "general / habitual present" in forms like gelir, yapar, okur — is built with a linking vowel before the -r. The catch is that this vowel is not always predictable: some stems take -Ar (yapar), others take -Ir (gelir), and which one a given monosyllable takes is a property of the verb that you simply have to know. This page sorts every case into three predictable classes plus one memorise-this list of thirteen, so you always know which form is correct.

Why there's a vowel to choose at all

The aorist suffix is, at root, just -r. After a vowel-final stem it attaches directly. But after a consonant-final stem, Turkish phonotactics need a vowel to break up the cluster — and Turkish has, over centuries, frozen which vowel each verb uses. For most verbs this is fully regular. The problem is confined to short, high-frequency monosyllabic stems, where history rather than rule decides. Those are exactly the verbs you use constantly, so the small irregular set carries a lot of weight.

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The aorist vowel is lexical, not phonological, for monosyllables. You cannot hear or reason your way to it — kalmak gives kalır but almak's near-rhyme bakmak gives bakar. It must be learned per verb.

Class 1 — Vowel-final stems → just -r

If the stem ends in a vowel, nothing is inserted. The bare -r clips straight on, and only vowel harmony in later endings matters.

Infinitive	Stem	Aorist	Gloss
okumak	oku-	okur	reads
beklemek	bekle-	bekler	waits
yürümek	yürü-	yürür	walks
başlamak	başla-	başlar	starts
söylemek	söyle-	söyler	says

O her akşam yatmadan önce biraz kitap okur.

He reads a bit every evening before going to bed.

Annem hep der ki, sabırlı olan kazanır.

My mother always says that the patient one wins.

Class 2 — Polysyllabic & most consonant stems → -Ir

Any stem of two or more syllables that ends in a consonant takes -Ir (surfacing as -ır/-ir/-ur/-ür by harmony). This is the productive default and covers the overwhelming majority of the Turkish verb stock — every borrowed and newly coined verb lands here. You can rely on it without checking.

Infinitive	Stem	Aorist	Gloss
getirmek	getir-	getirir	brings
oturmak	otur-	oturur	sits / lives
çalışmak	çalış-	çalışır	works
düşünmek	düşün-	düşünür	thinks
öğrenmek	öğren-	öğrenir	learns
konuşmak	konuş-	konuşur	speaks

Bu çocuk yeni şeyleri çok çabuk öğrenir.

This child learns new things very quickly.

O her gün dokuzdan beşe kadar çalışır.

He works every day from nine to five.

Class 3 — Common monosyllables → -Ar

Here is where the difficulty lives. Most monosyllabic consonant-final stems take -Ar (-ar/-er). Treat -Ar as the monosyllabic default: if you meet a one-syllable verb and have no other information, -Ar is the better bet — except for the thirteen in the next section.

Infinitive	Stem	Aorist	Gloss
yapmak	yap-	yapar	does / makes
bakmak	bak-	bakar	looks
yazmak	yaz-	yazar	writes
tutmak	tut-	tutar	holds
kaçmak	kaç-	kaçar	flees
içmek	iç-	içer	drinks
gitmek	git-	gider	goes
sevmek	sev-	sever	loves

Note gitmek: the stem-final t voices to d before the vowel, giving gider — a consonant change, not a vowel change. The vowel is still the regular -Ar.

Her sabah işe metroyla gider, akşam yürüyerek döner.

Every morning he goes to work by metro and walks back in the evening.

Bu kalem güzel yazar, al sen de dene.

This pen writes nicely — here, you try it too.

The irregular thirteen — monosyllables that take -Ir

These thirteen monosyllabic stems take -Ir even though, being short, you would expect -Ar by the Class 3 default. There is no rule that predicts them; this is the single list every learner has to commit to memory. They are also among the most frequent verbs in the language, so the effort pays off immediately.

Infinitive	Stem	Aorist	Gloss
almak	al-	alır	takes / buys
gelmek	gel-	gelir	comes
bilmek	bil-	bilir	knows
bulmak	bul-	bulur	finds
durmak	dur-	durur	stops / stands
görmek	gör-	görür	sees
kalmak	kal-	kalır	stays / remains
olmak	ol-	olur	becomes / happens
ölmek	öl-	ölür	dies
sanmak	san-	sanır	supposes
varmak	var-	varır	arrives
vermek	ver-	verir	gives
vurmak	vur-	vurur	hits / strikes

A pattern worth noticing: ten of the thirteen end in a liquid (l or r) — al-, gel-, bil-, bul-, dur-, gör-, kal-, ol-, öl-, var-, ver-, vur-. The two outliers are san- and the -r stems. This is a memory aid, not a hard rule (gülmek → güler, with -Ar, breaks it), but it captures most of the list: "short verbs ending in l or r often take -Ir."

Bu saatte markete gidersen taze ekmek bulursun.

If you go to the shop at this hour, you'll find fresh bread.

Merak etme, her şey zamanla yoluna girer, hep böyle olur.

Don't worry, everything sorts itself out in time — it always happens this way.

Bana inanmazsan kendin sor, herkes bilir.

If you don't believe me, ask yourself — everyone knows.

Otobüs tam saatinde gelir, hiç gecikmez.

The bus comes right on time, it never runs late.

The negative aorist erases the vowel

One more orthographic point that the -Ar/-Ir split makes irrelevant: in the negative aorist, the linking vowel disappears entirely. Both classes collapse to -mAz (3rd sg.) — yapmaz, gelmez, okumaz, alınmaz. So you only ever need the vowel for the affirmative aorist. The negative is uniform.

O hiç yalan söylemez, ona güvenebilirsin.

He never tells lies, you can trust him.

Common mistakes

❌ O kapıyı her sabah açır.

Incorrect — açmak is a monosyllabic -Ar verb: açar, not açır. Don't default monosyllables to -Ir.

✅ O kapıyı her sabah açar.

He opens the door every morning.

❌ Sabahları bir bardak su içir.

Incorrect — içmek takes -er (içer); içir is the unrelated causative 'make drink'.

✅ Sabahları bir bardak su içer.

He drinks a glass of water in the mornings.

❌ Kardeşim her hafta bana mektup yazır.

Incorrect — yazmak is a Class 3 monosyllable: yazar, not yazır.

✅ Kardeşim her hafta bana mektup yazar.

My brother writes me a letter every week.

❌ Bu işten iyi para alar.

Incorrect — almak is one of the irregular thirteen: alır, not alar.

✅ Bu işten iyi para alır.

He earns good money from this job.

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Build your memory the right way round: assume -Ar for monosyllables and learn only the thirteen -Ir exceptions, rather than trying to remember which of the hundreds of monosyllables take -Ar. The short list is the thing to drill.

Key takeaways

Vowel-final stems take bare -r: okur, bekler, yürür.
Polysyllabic / most consonant stems take -Ir: çalışır, getirir, düşünür — the safe productive default.
Most monosyllables take -Ar: yapar, bakar, yazar, tutar, kaçar, içer, gider.
Thirteen monosyllables take -Ir against expectation: alır, gelir, bilir, bulur, durur, görür, kalır, olur, ölür, sanır, varır, verir, vurur.
The negative aorist erases the vowel for every verb: yapmaz, gelmez, okumaz.

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