durmak, kalmak and oturmak all describe being-in-a-place or staying-in-a-state, and English keeps blurring them: each can be translated as stay in some context, yet they are not interchangeable. durmak is about stopping and standing still; kalmak is about remaining and being left over; oturmak is about sitting and, crucially, living somewhere. They also belong to the small group of verbs whose aorist takes -İr rather than -Ar (durur, kalır, oturur), so they're a good place to nail that pattern too.
durmak — to stop, to stand still, to stay put
The stem is dur- (consonant-final). Its core meaning is to come to a stop / to stand still. Dur! alone is the abrupt Stop! you'd shout, and it's written on every Turkish stop sign as DUR.
| Form | durmak |
|---|---|
| present continuous (o) | duruyor |
| aorist (o) | durur |
| past (o) | durdu |
| negative continuous (o) | durmuyor |
| question (o) | duruyor mu? |
It also means to remain in place — an object “stays / sits” somewhere untouched — and to keep being in a state (“dur bakalım”, hold on, let's see). With the locative it answers where does it sit?: anahtarlar masada duruyor (the keys are sitting on the table).
Otobüs durağında durmadı, geçip gitti.
The bus didn't stop at the stop, it drove right past.
Yağmur sonunda durdu, biraz yürüyebiliriz.
The rain finally stopped, we can walk for a bit.
Cüzdanın hâlâ komodinin üstünde duruyor, almayı unutma.
Your wallet is still sitting on the nightstand, don't forget to take it.
Note that in “the wallet is sitting there”, English says sitting, but Turkish uses durmak, not oturmak — an inanimate object that simply rests in a spot durur, it doesn't oturur.
kalmak — to stay, to remain, to be left over
The stem is kal- (consonant-final). It has two big senses. First, to stay / lodge: where you spend the night, where you remain, which with a place takes the locative: otelde kaldık (we stayed at the hotel), Ankara'da bir hafta kaldı (he stayed a week in Ankara).
| Form | kalmak |
|---|---|
| present continuous (o) | kalıyor |
| aorist (o) | kalır |
| past (o) | kaldı |
| negative continuous (o) | kalmıyor |
| question (o) | kalıyor mu? |
Bu gece bizde kal, sabah erkenden çıkarsın.
Stay at our place tonight, you can leave early in the morning.
Tatilde deniz kenarında küçük bir otelde kaldık.
On holiday we stayed at a small hotel by the sea.
The second sense is the one English speakers forget: to be left / to remain over. Here the thing remaining is the subject, and Turkish frames availability as “there remains to me”: param kaldı (literally my money remained = I have money left), iki gün kaldı (two days are left). This pattern is everywhere in everyday speech.
Sınava sadece üç gün kaldı, hâlâ hazır değilim.
Only three days are left until the exam, and I'm still not ready.
Buzdolabında hiç süt kalmamış, almam lazım.
There's no milk left in the fridge, I need to buy some.
It also covers being stuck or left in a state: trafikte kaldım (I got stuck in traffic), dersten kaldı (he failed the class — literally was left back from the class).
Yolda trafikte kaldım, o yüzden toplantıya geç kaldım.
I got stuck in traffic on the way, that's why I was late to the meeting.
That sentence pairs two idioms built on kalmak: trafikte kalmak (be stuck in traffic) and geç kalmak (be late).
oturmak — to sit, to sit down, and to live somewhere
The stem is otur- (consonant-final). Two meanings dominate. First, the literal to sit / sit down — what a person does to a chair. With the dative it's sit down onto (sandalyeye otur, sit down on the chair); on its own it's be seated / take a seat.
| Form | oturmak |
|---|---|
| present continuous (o) | oturuyor |
| aorist (o) | oturur |
| past (o) | oturdu |
| negative continuous (o) | oturmuyor |
| question (o) | oturuyor mu? |
Lütfen şöyle buyurun, şu koltuğa oturun.
Please come this way, take a seat on that armchair.
The second meaning is the one to lock in: oturmak is the ordinary Turkish verb for to reside / to live somewhere, and it takes the locative. “Where do you live?” is Nerede oturuyorsun?, and you answer İstanbul'da oturuyorum (I live in İstanbul). Turkish does not normally use yaşamak (to live, to be alive) for one's residential address; oturmak is the everyday choice.
Ben şu an Kadıköy'de oturuyorum ama aslında İzmirliyim.
I currently live in Kadıköy, but I'm actually from İzmir.
Eskiden bu apartmanda oturuyorduk, sonra taşındık.
We used to live in this apartment block, then we moved.
There's a third, idiomatic sense too: to fit / to suit, as in bu elbise sana çok oturmuş (this dress fits/suits you really well).
The aorist set: durur, kalır, oturur
All three take -İr in the aorist, not -Ar. This is the smaller of the two aorist classes, but it's full of high-frequency verbs, so it pays to memorise its members as a group: dur- → durur, kal- → kalır, otur- → oturur, alongside others like gel- → gelir, bil- → bilir, ver- → verir.
Saat beş treni her zaman bu peronda durur.
The five o'clock train always stops at this platform.
Misafir gelince çocuklar genellikle bizde kalır.
When guests come, the children usually stay at our place.
Common mistakes
❌ İstanbul'da yaşıyorum.
Understandable but unusual for an address — yaşamak means 'to be alive / to live (exist)'; for where you reside Turks say oturmak.
✅ İstanbul'da oturuyorum.
I live in İstanbul.
❌ Vazo masada oturuyor.
Wrong — an inanimate object resting somewhere uses durmak, not oturmak.
✅ Vazo masada duruyor.
The vase is sitting on the table.
❌ Benim param kaldım.
Wrong agreement — in the 'be left' sense the money is the subject, so it's third person: param kaldı.
✅ Param kaldı.
I have money left.
❌ Otelde durduk üç gün.
Wrong verb — for lodging/staying overnight you need kalmak; durmak means to stop/halt.
✅ Otelde üç gün kaldık.
We stayed at the hotel for three days.
❌ Sınava üç gün kalır.
Wrong tense — a countdown that already holds now uses the past kaldı, not the aorist.
✅ Sınava üç gün kaldı.
There are three days left until the exam.
Key takeaways
- durmak (aorist durur): to stop, to stand still; inanimate objects “sit/rest” somewhere with durmak, not oturmak.
- kalmak (aorist kalır): to stay/lodge (locative — otelde kaldık) and to be left over (param kaldı, üç gün kaldı); also idioms like trafikte kalmak, geç kalmak.
- oturmak (aorist oturur): to sit down, and — with the locative — to reside (İstanbul'da oturuyorum), the everyday word for where you live.
- All three take the -İr aorist, alongside gelir, bilir, verir.
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Start learning Turkish→Related Topics
- 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.
- The Locative -DA: At / In / OnA1 — The locative case -DA marks static location (at, in, on) and powers the var/yok possession construction; unlike English at/in, it can never express motion toward a place.
- How to Use the Verb ReferenceA2 — How to read the Turkish verb-reference pages — stem, key forms, governed case, and the irregular-feeling details they highlight.
- The Handful of Irregular StemsB1 — Turkish's tiny pocket of verb irregularity — de-, ye-, git- and the aorist-vowel monosyllables — gathered in one place.