ölmek ("to die") and doğmak ("to be born") bracket every life, and they form a neat pair for the learner — both are intransitive, both take locative and time expressions for place and date, and both have everyday causatives that mean "kill" and "give birth." The single most important thing for an English speaker to absorb is that "be born" is not a passive in Turkish. English uses be born (a passive of bear), so learners instinctively look for a passive construction. Turkish has none here: doğmak is a plain intransitive verb meaning "to come into being," and you simply say doğdum ("I was born," literally "I came-to-be"). Both verbs also lean heavily on the evidential -mIş in biographies, a usage that surprises beginners but follows a clear logic.
ölmek: forms and the irregular aorist
The stem is öl-. It is a monosyllable, and — like the other small closed set of monosyllables — it takes the irregular -Ir aorist: ölür, not \öler. Memorise it with the same group as *alır, verir, gelir, bilir, kalır, olur. The rest is regular: present ölüyor, past öldü, future ölecek.
| Form | ölmek (die) | doğmak (be born) |
|---|---|---|
| Present -(I)yor (3sg) | ölüyor | doğuyor |
| Aorist (3sg) | ölür (irregular -Ir) | doğar |
| Past -DI (3sg) | öldü | doğdu |
| Future -(y)AcAK (3sg) | ölecek | doğacak |
| Evidential -mIş (3sg) | ölmüş | doğmuş |
| Causative | öldürmek (kill) | doğurmak (give birth) |
Dedem geçen kış seksen sekiz yaşında öldü.
My grandfather died last winter at the age of eighty-eight.
Bu çiçekler susuz kalırsa iki günde ölür.
If these flowers are left without water, they die within two days.
A note of register: ölmek is the plain, direct verb. In gentler or more formal contexts Turkish often softens death the way English does, with vefat etmek ("to pass away," formal/news register) or hayatını kaybetmek ("to lose one's life," especially for accidents). Ölmek itself is neutral and used constantly, but for a recently bereaved person you would more likely say vefat etti or kaybettik.
Ünlü yazar dün sabah evinde vefat etti.
The famous writer passed away at home yesterday morning.
doğmak: "be born" is intransitive, not passive
The stem is doğ- (with the ğ lengthening the o). Critically, doğmak is intransitive and active in form even though English translates it as a passive. There is no agent "doing" the birth to you in the Turkish; you simply doğdun — "you were born / you came into being."
Ben İzmir'de doğdum ama İstanbul'da büyüdüm.
I was born in İzmir but grew up in İstanbul.
Bebek tam gece yarısı doğdu, hepimiz uyumuyorduk.
The baby was born at exactly midnight — none of us were asleep.
Place takes the locative (-DA): İzmir'de doğdum. A date takes the locative on the year too: 1990'da doğdu ("born in 1990"). Note the apostrophe before the suffix on proper nouns and on years written as figures.
Annem 1962'de küçük bir köyde doğmuş.
My mother was born in 1962 in a small village.
The biographical -mIş
Why doğmuş and not doğdu in that last sentence? This is one of the most characteristic uses of the evidential -mIş for English speakers to understand. The -mIş form marks information you did not witness firsthand — you know it by report, by inference, or by hearsay. You were obviously not present at your own birth, and you certainly weren't present at the births of historical figures, so when stating birth (and often death) dates that you know only from records or others' accounts, Turkish very naturally uses -mIş.
Atatürk 1881'de Selanik'te doğmuş, 1938'de ölmüş.
Atatürk was born in Salonika in 1881 and died in 1938.
This is the default register for biographies, encyclopaedia entries, and history. Using the plain past doğdu / öldü for a historical figure is not wrong, but -mIş signals the appropriately reportive stance: "as the record tells us." For your own birthplace, by contrast, doğdum (plain past) is normal — it's a fact about you that you simply state. But doğmuşum is also possible and idiomatic, with the flavour "so I'm told / apparently I was born…" — a nice illustration of how -mIş works even on first-person events you can't personally remember.
The causatives: öldürmek and doğurmak
Both verbs build everyday causatives that you cannot do without. The causative turns "X happens" into "someone makes X happen."
öldürmek ("to kill," literally "to cause to die") adds the causative -DIr. It is transitive: the victim is the accusative object.
Sivrisinek beni gece boyunca uyutmadı, sonunda öldürdüm.
A mosquito kept me awake all night — I finally killed it.
doğurmak ("to give birth, to bear") is the causative of doğmak (the mother causes the baby to come into being). The mother is the subject; the child, when named, is the accusative or bare object.
Kız kardeşim geçen hafta ikiz doğurdu, çok mutluyuz.
My sister gave birth to twins last week — we're so happy.
So the same root yields the full picture of a birth: the baby doğar (is born, intransitive), the mother doğurur (gives birth, causative). Don't say *doğdurdum — the causative of doğmak is the lexicalised doğurmak, not a regular -DIr form.
Bu haber onu neredeyse öldürecekti, çok sarsıldı.
This news nearly killed him — he was deeply shaken.
Common Mistakes
❌ İzmir'de doğuldum.
Incorrect — 'be born' is not a passive in Turkish; doğmak is already intransitive: İzmir'de doğdum.
✅ İzmir'de doğdum.
I was born in İzmir.
❌ Dedem 1940'ta doğdu derken aslında öler dedim.
The aorist of ölmek is the irregular ölür, not *öler.
✅ Bu hâlde devam ederse ölür.
If he carries on in this state, he'll die.
❌ Annem onu 1990'da doğdu.
A mother gives birth — that's the causative doğurmak: annem onu 1990'da doğurdu.
✅ Annem onu 1990'da doğurdu.
My mother gave birth to him in 1990.
❌ Sineği öldü.
To kill = transitive causative öldürmek: sineği öldürdüm. Öldü means '(it) died' on its own.
✅ Sineği öldürdüm.
I killed the fly.
❌ Atatürk 1881'de doğdu, 1938'de öldü (in an encyclopedia).
Not wrong, but biographies/history default to the evidential -mIş: doğmuş … ölmüş.
✅ Atatürk 1881'de doğmuş, 1938'de ölmüş.
Atatürk was born in 1881 and died in 1938.
Key Takeaways
- ölmek ("die") has the irregular -Ir aorist: ölür (with alır, gelir, kalır, olur). doğmak is regular: doğar.
- doğmak ("be born") is intransitive and active — there is no passive; just say doğdum.
- Place takes the locative (İzmir'de doğdum); dates too (1990'da doğdu), with an apostrophe on proper nouns and figures.
- Biographies and history prefer the evidential -mIş for births and deaths you didn't witness: 1881'de doğmuş.
- Causatives: öldürmek ("kill," accusative victim) and doğurmak ("give birth"); never *doğdurmak.
- Softer/formal alternatives for death: vefat etmek, hayatını kaybetmek.
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Start learning Turkish→Related Topics
- The Causative -DIr / -t / -IrB1 — How Turkish builds 'make/have someone do' with the causative suffix, which allomorph each verb takes, and how the suffix adds a new causer and demotes the old subject.
- The Evidential Past -mIş (Reportative/Inferential)A2 — The evidential past -mIş (gelmiş 'apparently came', yağmur yağmış 'it evidently rained') marks an event as known by hearsay, inference, or fresh surprise rather than direct witness — the single most distinctively Turkish feature for English speakers.
- 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.
- Dates, Days, MonthsA2 — Days (Pazartesi…Pazar), months (Ocak…Aralık) and full dates in Turkish — writing 15 Mayıs 2024, saying 'on Monday' with günü rather than the locative, and putting years in the locative with an apostrophe (2024'te).