gitmek is the everyday verb "to go," and it is one of the first verbs you will use in real Turkish because you constantly need to say where you are heading. It is regular in almost every respect — but it hides one small, high-frequency twist: the stem-final t softens to d whenever a vowel-initial suffix follows, so the stem you actually pronounce in most tenses is gid-, not git-. This page lays out the full paradigm, that softening rule, the case gitmek governs, and the idioms that make it punch above its weight.
The stem and its softening: git- → gid-
The dictionary form is gitmek, so the bare stem is git-. But Turkish does not like a voiceless t sitting between two vowels. The general consonant-softening rule of the language (the same one that turns kitap into kitabı) applies inside this verb: when a suffix begins with a vowel, the t voices to d.
The practical takeaway is binary. Suffix starts with a vowel → gid-. Suffix starts with a consonant → git- stays.
| Following suffix begins with… | Stem surfaces as | Example |
|---|---|---|
| vowel (-iyor, -ecek, -er, -ince) | gid- | gidiyor, gidecek, gider, gidince |
| consonant (-di, -miş, -se, -meli) | git- | gitti, gitmiş, gitse, gitmeli |
Yarın sabah erkenden köye gidiyoruz.
Tomorrow morning we're going to the village bright and early.
Dün akşam hiçbir yere gitmedim, evde kaldım.
I didn't go anywhere last night, I stayed home.
The five core tense forms
Here is gitmek across the tenses a beginner needs first, in the first-person singular and third-person singular. Watch the stem flip between git- and gid-.
| Tense / suffix | 1st sg. (I) | 3rd sg. (he/she/it) |
|---|---|---|
| Present continuous -(I)yor | gidiyorum | gidiyor |
| Aorist -(A/I)r | giderim | gider |
| Past -DI | gittim | gitti |
| Future -(y)AcAK | gideceğim | gidecek |
| Evidential -mIş | gitmişim | gitmiş |
Notice the split exactly tracks the softening rule. The two consonant-initial suffixes — past -DI and evidential -mIş — keep git- (gittim, gitmiş). The three vowel-initial ones — -(I)yor, the aorist, and -(y)AcAK — trigger gid- (gidiyorum, gider, gideceğim). One bonus orthographic point in the future: gidecek + -im gives gideceğim, where the k softens to ğ before the vowel — a second softening stacked on the first.
Bu yaz tatile İtalya'ya gideceğiz, biletleri çoktan aldık.
This summer we'll go to Italy on holiday — we bought the tickets ages ago.
O çocukken her yaz dedesine giderdi.
As a child he used to go to his grandfather's every summer.
The aorist gider belongs to the memorized -Ir set
The aorist of gitmek is gider. That ending looks like the regular -er, and indeed monosyllabic stems usually take -Ar. But gitmek is officially listed among the irregular thirteen monosyllables that take -Ir rather than the expected -Ar — the underlying vowel is -Ir, surfacing as gider. You do not need to derive this; you memorize gider as a unit, the same way you memorize gelir, bilir, and alır. The aorist carries the "general truth / habit" meaning: routines, timetables, and willingness.
Bu otobüs doğru şehir merkezine gider, aktarma yapmana gerek yok.
This bus goes straight to the city center — you don't need to change.
İstersen seninle ben de gelirim, beraber gideriz.
If you like, I'll come with you too — we'll go together.
Case: gitmek governs the dative (the goal of motion)
This is the structural point English speakers stumble on most. The destination of gitmek is marked with the dative case -(y)A ("to / toward"), not with a preposition and not with the accusative. There is no separate word for "to"; the goal noun simply wears the dative suffix.
| Destination | Dative form | With gitmek |
|---|---|---|
| okul (school) | okula | okula gitmek — to go to school |
| ev (home) | eve | eve gitmek — to go home |
| İzmir | İzmir'e | İzmir'e gitmek — to go to İzmir |
| iş (work) | işe | işe gitmek — to go to work |
English marks "go home" with no preposition at all, "go to school" with "to," and "go abroad" with yet another pattern — Turkish is cleaner: every destination just takes the dative. Be careful with proper nouns, where an apostrophe separates the name from the suffix: İzmir'e, Ankara'ya.
Hadi, geç kalıyoruz — hemen okula gitmen lazım.
Come on, we're running late — you need to go to school right now.
Bu akşam dışarı çıkmak istemiyorum, doğru eve gideceğim.
I don't feel like going out tonight, I'll go straight home.
Negative and question forms
The negative inserts -mA between stem and tense suffix. Crucially, -mA begins with a consonant (m), so it does not trigger softening — the stem stays git- in negatives: gitmiyorum, gitmedim, gitmeyeceğim. The negative aorist is the irregular gitmez (the linking vowel drops, as it does for every verb in the negative aorist).
The yes/no question uses the separate particle mi, written as its own word and harmonizing: gidiyor musun?, gittin mi?, gidecek misin?.
| Form | Negative | Question |
|---|---|---|
| Present continuous | gitmiyorum | gidiyor muyum? |
| Aorist | gitmem | gider miyim? |
| Past | gitmedim | gittim mi? |
| Future | gitmeyeceğim | gidecek miyim? |
Sen bu sene düğüne gidiyor musun, yoksa işin mi var?
Are you going to the wedding this year, or do you have work?
Doktor dinlenmemi söyledi, o yüzden bu hafta spora gitmeyeceğim.
The doctor told me to rest, so I won't go to the gym this week.
Idioms: where gitmek stops meaning "go"
gitmek powers several everyday expressions where it no longer means physical motion. Two are worth learning early because natives use them constantly.
hoşuma gitti — literally "it went to my pleasure," idiomatically "I liked it." The thing liked is the subject; the experiencer is marked with hoş + possessive + a (dative): hoşuma, hoşuna, hoşumuza. This is the most natural way to say you enjoyed a film, a meal, or an idea — far more idiomatic than a literal "I liked."
Dün izlediğimiz film çok hoşuma gitti, sana da tavsiye ederim.
I really liked the film we watched yesterday — I'd recommend it to you too.
Bu fikir hoşuna gitmediyse başka bir şey düşünelim.
If you didn't like this idea, let's think of something else.
boşa gitmek — "to go to waste, be in vain." boş is "empty"; in the dative boşa it means "into emptiness." Effort, money, or time can boşa gitmek.
Bunca emek boşa gitmesin diye sonuna kadar uğraştık.
We worked on it to the very end so that all that effort wouldn't go to waste.
A third, very colloquial one worth recognizing: gitti gider, used to mean something is gone for good, and canım gitti ("my soul left") for being utterly drained or terrified.
Common mistakes
❌ Yarın okulu gidiyorum.
Incorrect — gitmek takes the dative, not the accusative. Destinations get -(y)A: okula.
✅ Yarın okula gidiyorum.
I'm going to school tomorrow.
❌ Ben şimdi eve gitiyorum.
Incorrect — the t softens to d before a vowel suffix: gidiyorum, not gitiyorum.
✅ Ben şimdi eve gidiyorum.
I'm going home now.
❌ Geçen yıl Almanya'ya gidtim.
Incorrect — the past -DI begins with a consonant, so the stem stays git-: gittim.
✅ Geçen yıl Almanya'ya gittim.
I went to Germany last year.
❌ Bu film çok hoşuma gitiyor.
Incorrect — even in this idiom the softening applies: hoşuma gidiyor.
✅ Bu film çok hoşuma gidiyor.
I'm really enjoying this film.
Key takeaways
- The stem softens: gid- before vowel-initial suffixes (
gidiyorum,gideceğim,gider), git- before consonant-initial ones (gittim,gitmiş,gitse). - The aorist is gider, memorized as part of the irregular thirteen
-Irmonosyllables. gitmekgoverns the dative for its destination:okula gitmek,eve gitmek,İzmir'e gitmek.- Negatives keep
git-(gitmiyorum,gitmedim); the question particlemiis a separate word (gittin mi?). - Idioms: hoşuma gitti ("I liked it"), boşa gitmek ("go to waste").
Now practice Turkish
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Start learning Turkish→Related Topics
- The Handful of Irregular StemsB1 — Turkish's tiny pocket of verb irregularity — de-, ye-, git- and the aorist-vowel monosyllables — gathered in one place.
- gelmek (to come)A1 — A reference for gelmek — its dative goal (eve gelmek), the aorist gelir, the greetings hoş geldin and kolay gelsin, and the '...gibi gelmek' construction meaning 'to seem'.
- The Dative -(y)A: To / Into / ForA1 — The dative case -(y)A marks goal and direction (to, into, onto), the indirect object, and the complement of the many Turkish verbs and postpositions that lexically demand it.
- Aorist Vowel Reference (-Ar vs -Ir)B1 — Which aorist linking vowel each Turkish verb takes — the predictable classes plus the thirteen monosyllables that take -Ir against expectation.