pişirmek "to cook" and yıkamak "to wash" are two of the most useful household verbs in Turkish — you reach for them every time you make dinner or do the dishes. Both are transitive: they act on a definite object that takes the accusative. But their real teaching value is that each opens a window onto a different corner of the Turkish voice system. pişirmek is literally the causative of pişmek "to be/get cooked" — so the pair pişmek/pişirmek lets you watch a causative being built out of an everyday word. yıkamak, meanwhile, feeds the reflexive yıkanmak "to wash oneself" and the passive of the same shape. Learn these two verbs together and you have a working model of two voice alternations in vocabulary you'll use daily.
pişirmek: a causative you cook with
The intransitive base is pişmek "to be cooked, to cook (of food), to ripen". Food is the subject; nobody is named as the cook. To make someone cook the food, Turkish adds the causative suffix -Ir to the stem: piş- + -ir → pişir-, "to cause to cook" = "to cook (something)". This is the same machinery as doğmak "be born" → doğurmak "give birth", and it is the cleanest kitchen example of the causative in -DIr.
| Intransitive — the food cooks | Causative — someone cooks it |
|---|---|
| Yemek pişti. (The food cooked / is done.) | Yemeği pişirdim. (I cooked the food.) |
| Pirinç pişiyor. (The rice is cooking.) | Pirinci pişiriyorum. (I'm cooking the rice.) |
| Et iyi pişmiş. (The meat is well cooked.) | Eti iyice pişirdi. (She cooked the meat well.) |
Akşama köfte pişireceğim, sen salata yaparsın.
I'll cook meatballs for tonight, you make the salad.
Makarna henüz pişmedi, beş dakika daha lazım.
The pasta isn't cooked yet, it needs five more minutes.
The aorist is pişirir (front/back harmony gives pişirir, not pişirar), the present is pişiriyor, the past pişirdi, the future pişirecek. Note that pişirmek describes the act of cooking something specific; for "to cook" as a general activity or skill, Turkish often uses yemek yapmak "to make food".
Annem çok güzel mantı yapar, ben sadece makarna pişirebilirim.
My mum makes wonderful mantı; I can only cook pasta.
yıkamak: a transitive that builds a reflexive
yıkamak "to wash (something)" is a plain transitive verb. The thing washed — dishes, clothes, the car, your hands — takes the accusative when definite. Its aorist is yıkar (back-vowel stem, so -Ar), present yıkıyor, past yıkadı, future yıkayacak.
Yemekten sonra bulaşıkları ben yıkarım, sen otur.
I'll wash the dishes after the meal, you sit down.
Arabayı yıkamam lazım, toz içinde kalmış.
I need to wash the car, it's covered in dust.
Çocuğun ellerini sabunla yıka, sonra sofraya gelsin.
Wash the child's hands with soap, then let him come to the table.
Now add the reflexive/middle suffix -In and you get yıkanmak "to wash oneself, to have a wash / shower". The action turns inward: the subject both washes and is washed, so there is no separate object. This is the textbook everyday illustration of the reflexive in -In — the same suffix that turns giymek "put on" into giyinmek "get dressed", or taramak "comb" into taranmak "comb one's hair".
| Transitive — wash something | Reflexive — wash oneself |
|---|---|
| Bebeği yıkadım. (I washed the baby.) | Yıkandım. (I washed / had a shower.) |
| Saçımı yıkıyorum. (I'm washing my hair.) | Yıkanıyorum. (I'm washing up / showering.) |
Spordan geldim, önce bir yıkanayım da öyle yemek yiyelim.
I'm back from the gym — let me have a wash first, then we'll eat.
The passive trap: yıkanmak does double duty
Here is the subtlety that makes this verb worth a whole section. The form yıkanmak is both the reflexive ("wash oneself") and the passive ("be washed") of yıkamak — because the reflexive suffix -In and the passive suffix collapse to the same shape after the -a- of the stem. Context decides which reading is live.
- With a person as subject and no agent, yıkanmak = reflexive: çocuk yıkandı "the child washed up".
- With a thing as subject (which can't wash itself), yıkanmak = passive: bulaşıklar yıkandı "the dishes were washed" / çamaşırlar yıkanıyor "the laundry is being washed".
Bu gömlek makinede yıkanmaz, elde yıkanması gerekir.
This shirt can't be machine-washed; it needs to be washed by hand.
Bütün meyveler yenmeden önce iyice yıkanmalı.
All the fruit should be washed thoroughly before being eaten.
When the speaker really wants to disambiguate the passive — especially in instructions and recipes — the fuller passive yıkanılmak is available, but in everyday Turkish yıkanmak covers both senses and nobody is confused. This is exactly the kind of detail the recipe and instruction register leans on, where impersonal passives ("the vegetables are washed, the meat is browned") dominate.
Sebzeler yıkanır, doğranır ve tencereye atılır.
The vegetables are washed, chopped, and put into the pot. (recipe register)
pişirmek in the passive too
For symmetry: the passive of pişirmek is pişirilmek "to be cooked (by someone)". You meet it constantly in recipes and on menus, again in the impersonal-passive recipe register.
Bu yemek düşük ateşte iki saat pişirilir.
This dish is cooked over low heat for two hours. (recipe register)
Balık fırında pişirildiyse daha sağlıklı olur.
If the fish was cooked in the oven, it's healthier.
Note the difference from pişmek: balık pişti ("the fish cooked", intransitive, no agent implied — it just happened) versus balık pişirildi ("the fish was cooked", passive — a cook is implied but unnamed). English blurs these with one word cook; Turkish keeps the intransitive, the transitive, and the passive on three visibly different stems.
Conjugation snapshot
| Form | pişirmek (1sg) | yıkamak (1sg) |
|---|---|---|
| Present (-Iyor) | pişiriyorum | yıkıyorum |
| Aorist (-Ir / -Ar) | pişiririm | yıkarım |
| Past (-DI) | pişirdim | yıkadım |
| Future (-AcAk) | pişireceğim | yıkayacağım |
| Reflexive / passive | pişirilmek (be cooked) | yıkanmak (wash oneself / be washed) |
Watch the stem vowel in the present: yıka- + -Iyor drops the final -a and harmonizes to yıkıyor, not yıkayıyor. The future keeps a buffer -y-: yıkayacağım. And the aorist split is exactly what the aorist vowel table predicts — back-vowel yıka- takes -ar (yıkar), while pişir- takes the high-vowel -ir (pişirir).
Common mistakes
Giving the intransitive pişmek an accusative object instead of using the causative pişirmek:
❌ Yemeği piştim.
Incorrect — pişmek is intransitive (the food cooks). To say 'I cooked the food' use the causative: yemeği pişirdim.
✅ Yemeği pişirdim.
I cooked the food.
Using the reflexive yıkanmak with a direct object — washing a thing with the form that means "wash oneself":
❌ Bulaşıkları yıkandım.
Incorrect — yıkanmak takes no object. To wash the dishes use the transitive: bulaşıkları yıkadım.
✅ Bulaşıkları yıkadım.
I washed the dishes.
Using the transitive yıkamak for washing oneself, by analogy with English "I wash":
❌ Her sabah yıkarım.
Incorrect — without an object this sounds like 'I wash (things) every morning'. For 'I shower / wash up every morning' use the reflexive: her sabah yıkanırım.
✅ Her sabah yıkanırım.
I have a wash / shower every morning.
Forgetting the accusative on a definite cooked or washed object:
❌ Tavuk pişirdim ve salata yaptım.
Acceptable only if 'chicken' is indefinite ('I cooked some chicken'). For the specific chicken you bought, mark it: tavuğu pişirdim.
✅ Tavuğu pişirdim ve salatayı hazırladım.
I cooked the chicken and prepared the salad.
Mis-harmonizing the present stem of yıkamak:
❌ Şu an arabayı yıkayıyorum.
Wrong — the stem -a drops before -Iyor: yıkıyorum, not yıkayıyorum.
✅ Şu an arabayı yıkıyorum.
I'm washing the car right now.
Key takeaways
- pişirmek "to cook" is the causative of pişmek "to be cooked": the food pişer (intransitive), the cook pişirir (transitive, accusative object).
- yıkamak "to wash" is transitive (definite object → accusative); its reflexive yıkanmak means "wash oneself / shower" and takes no object.
- yıkanmak is also the passive ("be washed"): person-subject → reflexive, thing-subject → passive (çamaşırlar yıkanıyor "the laundry is being washed").
- Passives pişirilmek and yıkanmak drive the impersonal recipe and instruction register: sebzeler yıkanır, et pişirilir.
- Aorists: pişirir (high vowel -ir) and yıkar (low vowel -ar); the present of yıkamak is yıkıyor (dropped -a).
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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 Reflexive -InB2 — How the suffix -In turns a verb back on its own subject (yıkanmak 'wash oneself', giyinmek 'get dressed'), and when to use it instead of the productive kendi(ni) reflexive.
- The Accusative -(y)I and DefinitenessA1 — The accusative ending marks a direct object as specific — and because Turkish has no word for 'the', the accusative effectively IS the definite article.
- Instructions, Recipes, ManualsB2 — How Turkish writes procedures — the impersonal-passive aorist of recipes and manuals versus the casual imperative of a friend reading you a recipe.