The aorist, geniş zaman ("the wide tense") in Turkish, is the tense of things that are generally, characteristically, or always true. It is not the tense for what is happening right now — that is the job of -(I)yor. Getting these two apart is one of the genuine hurdles in Turkish, because English collapses much of this distinction into a single "simple present". This page builds the aorist's form first, then shows you exactly what it means.
Form: -r, -Ir, or -Ar
The aorist suffix has three shapes, chosen by the shape of the stem:
- Vowel-final stems take just -r: oku- → okur, bekle- → bekler, ye- → yer.
- Multisyllabic consonant-final stems and most others take -Ir (the high-vowel I-type, harmonizing four ways): getir- → getirir, otur- → oturur, çalış- → çalışır.
- Monosyllabic consonant-final stems mostly take -Ar (the low-vowel A-type, harmonizing two ways): yap- → yapar, gel- → gelir ... and here is the catch.
That last group is partly lexical. Most monosyllabic stems take -Ar (yap- → yapar, bak- → bakar, yaz- → yazar), but a sizable set of common monosyllabic verbs take -Ir instead (gel- → gelir, al- → alır, gör- → görür, bil- → bilir, var- → varır, kal- → kalır). There is no rule that reliably predicts which — you memorize the -Ir set. The thirteen or so classic -Ir monosyllables are laid out in the aorist vowel table; learn them as a closed list.
| Stem type | Verb | Aorist | Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|
| vowel-final | oku- | okur | reads |
| multisyllabic | çalış- | çalışır | works |
| monosyllabic (-Ar) | yap- | yapar | does |
| monosyllabic (-Ir, lexical) | gel- | gelir | comes |
| monosyllabic (-Ir, lexical) | al- | alır | takes |
| monosyllabic (-Ir, lexical) | gör- | görür | sees |
Note that gör- gives görür (rounded ü, by labial attraction), not görir.
The full paradigm
After the aorist suffix come the Type 1 personal endings. Here is gelmek ("to come"), an -Ir verb:
| Person | Form | English |
|---|---|---|
| ben | gelirim | I come |
| sen | gelirsin | you come |
| o | gelir | he/she/it comes |
| biz | geliriz | we come |
| siz | gelirsiniz | you (pl./formal) come |
| onlar | gelirler | they come |
Her sabah saat yedide kalkarım.
I get up at seven every morning.
Babam akşamları gazete okur.
My dad reads the paper in the evenings.
What the aorist actually means
The aorist does four jobs, and none of them is "right now".
1. Habits and characterizing routines. Regular, characteristic activity — "what one does," the kind of thing that is generally true of you — takes the aorist, often with an adverb like her gün ("every day"), genellikle ("usually"), bazen ("sometimes").
Hafta sonları köye gideriz.
On weekends we go to the village (that's what we do).
Genellikle yürüyerek işe giderim.
I usually walk to work.
A caveat that matters for sounding natural: for a routine you actually perform in your current life, everyday spoken Turkish often prefers the continuous -(I)yor instead — Her sabah kahve içiyorum ("I drink coffee every morning") is more common in speech than Her sabah kahve içerim, though the aorist version is perfectly correct and simply reads as more characterizing ("I'm a morning-coffee person"). The boundary between the two is mapped out in -(I)yor vs -Ir; here, just note that the aorist is the generic/characterizing habit, not the only way to state a routine.
2. General truths and characteristics. Facts about how the world or a person is.
Su yüz derecede kaynar.
Water boils at a hundred degrees.
O çok çalışır, hiç şikâyet etmez.
She works hard and never complains.
3. Willingness, offers, and polite requests. This is the one English speakers least expect. To offer something or ask a favor politely, Turkish uses the aorist, often with the question particle. Çay içer misin? literally "Do you (would you) drink tea?" is the normal way to offer tea.
Çay içer misin?
Would you like some tea?
Kapıyı kapatır mısın?
Would you close the door?
Yarın bana yardım eder misin?
Could you help me tomorrow?
4. Predictions and likelihoods. Confident guesses about the future.
Merak etme, otobüs birazdan gelir.
Don't worry, the bus will come shortly.
Bu saatte trafik olmaz, on dakikada varırız.
There's no traffic at this hour, we'll get there in ten minutes.
The core hurdle: aorist is NOT "I am doing"
The single most common mistake is reaching for the aorist when something is happening now, because English's "I do" and "I am doing" feel interchangeable. They are not in Turkish. Compare:
- Ne yapıyorsun? — "What are you doing (right now)?" → answer with -(I)yor.
- Ne iş yaparsın? — "What work do you do (for a living)?" → answer with the aorist.
If you ask a friend Ne yaparsın? while they are clearly cooking, it sounds like you are asking about their profession, not the cooking. The mismatch is subtle but real, and native speakers notice it immediately. When the action is anchored to the present moment, use -(I)yor; the boundary cases are mapped out in -(I)yor vs -Ir.
Common mistakes
❌ Şu an kitap okurum.
Incorrect — aorist used for an action happening at this moment
✅ Şu an kitap okuyorum.
I'm reading a book right now.
Okurum means "I read (in general / I'm a reader)", not "I'm reading now". For the present moment, use -(I)yor.
❌ Görirsin.
Incorrect — linking vowel not rounded after a rounded stem
✅ Görürsün.
You see / you'll see.
After the rounded ö of gör-, the aorist vowel rounds to ü: görür, görürsün.
❌ Çay içersin mi?
Incorrect — wrong word for a polite offer, and mi misplaced
✅ Çay içer misin?
Would you like some tea?
For offers and polite requests, the aorist + mi question is the natural choice; mi sits between the aorist and the personal ending: içer misin.
Babam her akşam gazete okur.
My dad reads the paper every evening (it's a fixed habit of his).
Babam her akşam gazete okuyor.
My dad reads the paper every evening (also fine — the spoken default for a routine he keeps).
Both are correct. With her akşam ("every evening"), the aorist okur frames it as a characteristic habit ("that's what he does"), while the continuous okuyor is the everyday spoken way to report a routine he actually keeps. Only in a bare sentence with no habit adverb does okuyor default to "he is reading right now" — see -(I)yor vs -Ir for the full boundary.
Key takeaways
- Form: -r after vowels (okur), -Ir after multisyllabic stems (çalışır), -Ar after most monosyllables (yapar) — but a memorized set of monosyllables takes -Ir (gelir, alır, görür, bilir, kalır, varır).
- The aorist covers habits, general truths, willingness/offers, and predictions — bilirim, severim, olur, yapar mısın?
- It is not the present-moment tense; for "right now" use -(I)yor.
- For polite offers and requests, use the aorist + mi: Çay içer misin?
- The negative aorist is irregular — see Aorist negative -mAz.
Now practice Turkish
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Start learning Turkish→Related Topics
- Present Continuous -(I)yorA1 — How to form and use the -(I)yor present, Turkish's everyday tense for ongoing and near-future actions.
- Aorist Negative -mAzB1 — Why the aorist's negative is irregular, with the special -mAm and -mAyIz forms that catch every learner.
- 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.
- -(I)yor vs -(A/I)r: Now vs GenerallyA2 — How to choose between the Turkish present continuous and the aorist — and why it is not the same split as English continuous vs simple present.