Turkish negation is normally beautifully regular: you slot -mA- into the verb and everything else stays put. The aorist breaks this rule, and it is the only tense that does. Instead of keeping its affirmative -Ir/-Ar and adding -mA-, the aorist swaps the whole ending out for -mAz — and then, in the first person, even -mAz changes shape. This page is short but worth memorizing cold, because the wrong forms (içmezim, gelmezim) are produced by almost every learner and corrected by every native speaker.
The affirmative ending disappears
Watch what happens. In every other tense, the affirmative suffix survives under negation. In the aorist it vanishes:
| Person | Affirmative | Negative | English (negative) |
|---|---|---|---|
| ben | gelirim | gelmem | I don't come |
| sen | gelirsin | gelmezsin | you don't come |
| o | gelir | gelmez | he/she/it doesn't come |
| biz | geliriz | gelmeyiz | we don't come |
| siz | gelirsiniz | gelmezsiniz | you (pl./formal) don't come |
| onlar | gelirler | gelmezler | they don't come |
The pattern, read down the negative column: -mem, -mezsin, -mez, -meyiz, -mezsiniz, -mezler. The aorist vowel -i- of gelir is gone entirely. There is no gelmezir and no logic to extract — this is simply how the aorist negates.
Ben sigara içmem.
I don't smoke.
O hiç yalan söylemez.
He never lies.
-mAz is two-way
The negative marker itself harmonizes only two ways, like a low A-type vowel: -mez after front vowels (e, i, ö, ü) and -maz after back vowels (a, ı, o, u). So gel- → gelmez but yap- → yapmaz; sev- → sevmez but anla- → anlamaz.
Bu çocuk sebze sevmez.
This kid doesn't like vegetables.
Sen hiçbir şey anlamazsın.
You don't understand anything.
The two forms that break the pattern
Now the part that catches everyone. In the first person singular and first person plural, -mAz does not appear. Instead:
- 1st singular: -mAm — gel- → gelmem, iç- → içmem, bil- → bilmem, yap- → yapmam.
- 1st plural: -mAyIz — gel- → gelmeyiz, git- → gitmeyiz, yap- → yapmayız, anla- → anlamayız.
So "I don't drink" is içmem, never içmezim. "We won't go" is gitmeyiz, never gitmeziz. The -z of -mAz survives in 2nd and 3rd person but drops in the first person, leaving just the personal marker.
| Verb | 1sg (-mAm) | 1pl (-mAyIz) |
|---|---|---|
| içmek | içmem | içmeyiz |
| gelmek | gelmem | gelmeyiz |
| bilmek | bilmem | bilmeyiz |
| gitmek | gitmem | gitmeyiz |
| yapmak | yapmam | yapmayız |
Bilmem, bana sorma.
I don't know, don't ask me.
Biz o restorana bir daha gitmeyiz.
We won't go to that restaurant again.
Onlardan korkmam.
I'm not afraid of them.
Why this matters: the aorist is the lone exception
Across the whole verb system, you learn one habit — negate by inserting -mA- — and it works for the present continuous (gelmiyor), the past (gelmedi), the future (gelmeyecek), and the rest. The aorist is the single tense where that habit fails. Because the rule is otherwise so consistent, the brain keeps applying it here, producing gelmezim and içmezim. Recognizing the aorist as the exception — and drilling the four irregular cells (-mAm, -mAyIz) — is the whole battle. The most frequent slips are collected on the aorist negative mistakes page; the general insertion rule it departs from is verb negation -ma.
Polite refusals and habitual nots
Like the affirmative aorist, the negative aorist expresses unwillingness and general "not" habits. Gelmem can mean "I don't come" (habit) or "I won't come / I refuse to come" (unwillingness), depending on context. This makes it useful for firm, polite refusals — and because it is the aorist, it carries the same "this is just how I am" flavor: Ben içki içmem is closer to "I'm not a drinker" than to a one-off "I won't drink tonight".
O konuda hiç tartışmam.
I won't argue about that at all.
Söz vermeden bir şey yapmayız.
We don't do anything without promising first.
Negative aorist questions
The negative aorist also forms questions, and here the first-person irregularity reappears inside the question. The question particle mi slots in after -mAz, but in the first person the form is built on -mAz (not -mAm) before mi: "Wouldn't I come?" is gelmez miyim?. In the second and third person it is the expected gelmez misin?, gelmez mi?. These negative questions are a common way to make soft suggestions and surprised remarks — Bir kahve içmez misin? ("Won't you have a coffee?") is a warmer invitation than the plain affirmative.
Bir kahve içmez misin?
Won't you have a coffee?
Bu saatte hiç yorulmaz mısın?
Don't you ever get tired at this hour?
Where the negative aorist sits among the "not now" forms
It helps to see the negative aorist beside its neighbors. Gelmiyor ("isn't coming, right now") is the negative of the present continuous; gelmeyecek ("won't come, future") is the negative future; gelmez ("doesn't come / won't come, characteristically") is the negative aorist. All three translate loosely as "doesn't/won't come" in English, but only gelmez makes a statement about general behavior or settled refusal rather than a specific moment. Choosing it correctly is the same habitual-vs-momentary judgment you make in the affirmative — see the aorist and present continuous -(I)yor.
O hiç geç kalmaz, çok dakiktir.
She's never late, she's very punctual.
Common mistakes
❌ Ben çay içmezim.
Incorrect — regular pattern applied to the irregular 1sg
✅ Ben çay içmem.
I don't drink tea.
The 1st singular is -mAm, not -mAz + im. İçmezim does not exist.
❌ Ben sana gelmezim.
Incorrect — same 1sg error
✅ Ben sana gelmem.
I won't come to you.
Again, gelmem, never gelmezim.
❌ Biz oraya gitmeziz.
Incorrect — 1pl should be -mAyIz, not -mAz + iz
✅ Biz oraya gitmeyiz.
We don't / won't go there.
The 1st plural is -mAyIz: gitmeyiz, yapmayız, gelmeyiz.
❌ O hiç yalan söylemiyor değil.
Incorrect — over-complicated; use the plain negative aorist for a general truth
✅ O hiç yalan söylemez.
He never lies.
For a general characteristic ("never does X"), the simple negative aorist söylemez is the natural form.
❌ Sen anlamazsın değil mi?
Spelling/sense fine, but note the form: 2sg keeps -mAz
✅ Sen anlamazsın, değil mi?
You don't understand, right?
Only the first person drops -z; the 2nd person keeps it: anlamazsın. (Add the comma before değil mi.)
Key takeaways
- The aorist negates by replacing its ending with -mAz, not by inserting -mA- — it is the only tense that does this.
- -mAz is two-way: mez (front) / maz (back).
- First person is special: -mAm (1sg: içmem, gelmem, bilmem) and -mAyIz (1pl: gitmeyiz, gelmeyiz, yapmayız).
- Full block: -mam, -mezsin, -mez, -meyiz, -mezsiniz, -mezler.
- The negative aorist also expresses unwillingness and refusal, useful for polite "I won't" statements.
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Start learning Turkish→Related Topics
- The Aorist -(A/I)r: Habitual and GeneralA2 — How to form the Turkish aorist and why it covers habits, general truths, and polite offers rather than the present moment.
- Verbal Negation -mAA1 — The single suffix -mA that negates every Turkish verb, where it sits, how it pulls stress, and how it fuses with -yor and the aorist.
- Type 1 Endings (-(y)Im set)A1 — The Type 1 personal endings -(y)Im, -sIn, -Ø, -(y)Iz, -sInIz, -lAr mark the subject after the continuous, aorist, future, and evidential tenses and on noun predicates — the same set every time, so you learn them once.
- The Aorist Negative TrapB1 — The one Turkish tense whose negative is irregular — why 'I don't drink' is içmem, not *içmezim, why 'we don't go' is gelmeyiz, not *gelmeziz, and the full suppletive paradigm.