The Future -(y)AcAK | Turkish Grammar

The future suffix -(y)AcAK is the clear, unambiguous "will" of Turkish. Unlike the aorist, which often leans toward the present (habits, general truths) and only sometimes predicts, the future tense is a genuine future-and-intention marker: it says an action is going to happen. It is also where two small sound rules — the k→ğ softening and the buffer -y- — show up together, so it is a good place to nail both.

Form: -acak / -ecek

The suffix harmonizes two ways: -acak after back vowels (a, ı, o, u) and -ecek after front vowels (e, i, ö, ü). Both a's in -acak and both e's in -ecek follow the stem.

gel- (front) → gelecek "will come"
yap- (back) → yapacak "will do"
gör- (front, rounded) → görecek "will see"
al- (back) → alacak "will take"

Note that -AcAK does not round: even after the rounded ö of gör-, you get görecek, not göröcök. Future harmony is the plain two-way kind.

Yarın seni arayacağım.

I'll call you tomorrow.

Trafik varsa biraz geç kalacağız.

If there's traffic we'll be a little late.

The buffer -y- after vowel stems

If the stem ends in a vowel, Turkish refuses to let two vowels collide. It slips in a buffer consonant -y- between the stem and -AcAK — this is the (y) in the suffix's name.

bekle- → bekleyecek "will wait"
oku- → okuyacak "will read"
ye- → yiyecek "will eat" (note: ye- also raises its vowel to i — see below)
başla- → başlayacak "will start"

So "I will wait" is bekleyeceğim and "we will read" is okuyacağız.

Bu akşam ders çalışmayacağım, dinleneceğim.

I won't study tonight, I'll rest.

Çocuklar parkta oynayacaklar.

The kids are going to play in the park.

The k→ğ softening — the form everyone forgets

This is the rule that separates fluent-sounding learners from beginners. The K at the end of -AcAK is a final k, but when a vowel-initial ending attaches behind it, that k sits between two vowels and softens to ğ (a process called k→ğ softening).

This matters for the first person (singular and plural), because their endings begin with a vowel:

gelecek
- -im → geleceğim "I will come" (not gelecekim)
gelecek
- -iz → geleceğiz "we will come"
yapacak
- -ım → yapacağım "I will do"
görecek
- -im → göreceğim "I will see"

In the other persons the ending begins with a consonant (or is empty), so the k stays:

Person	gelmek (front)	yapmak (back)
ben	geleceğim	yapacağım
sen	geleceksin	yapacaksın
o	gelecek	yapacak
biz	geleceğiz	yapacağız
siz	geleceksiniz	yapacaksınız
onlar	gelecekler	yapacaklar

So the k survives in gelecek, geleceksin, gelecekler but softens in geleceğim, geleceğiz. The ğ (soft g) is not really pronounced as a separate sound — it lengthens the neighboring vowels — but you must write it.

Sınavdan sonra seni göreceğim.

I'll see you after the exam.

Bayramda memlekete gideceğiz.

We'll go to our hometown for the holiday.

Negation: -mAyAcAK

The future negates with the regular -mA-, which combines with the buffer -y- to give -mAyAcAK: gel- → gelmeyecek, yap- → yapmayacak, git- → gitmeyecekler.

Onlar bu yıl tatile gitmeyecekler.

They aren't going to go on vacation this year.

Merak etme, kimse bir şey söylemeyecek.

Don't worry, no one's going to say anything.

The future participle: -(y)AcAK in relative clauses

Here is the bonus that makes this suffix doubly worth learning. The bare third-person form -(y)AcAK also works as the future participle — it builds relative clauses meaning "(the thing) that will be Xed". Okuyacağım kitap is "the book I will read" (literally "my-future-read book"); gideceğimiz yer is "the place we will go". The same k→ğ softening applies, because a possessive ending follows. This is covered in depth on the future participle -AcAK page, but it is the same morphology you already know.

Okuyacağım kitap çantamda.

The book I'm going to read is in my bag.

Gideceğimiz otel deniz kenarında.

The hotel we'll go to is by the sea.

💡

The future is the tense for plans and intentions you're committed to. Use it for "I will / I'm going to". For confident predictions about things outside your control ("the bus will come soon"), the aorist gelir is often more idiomatic — see the aorist.

💡

Write the ğ. Geleceğim and göreceğim are spelled with soft g; gelecekim and gelecekiz are simply wrong, even though learners say them constantly.

Common mistakes

❌ Yarın gelecekim.

Incorrect — k not softened to ğ before the vowel ending

✅ Yarın geleceğim.

I'll come tomorrow.

Before the 1sg -im, the final k sits between vowels and becomes ğ: geleceğim.

❌ Onu görecekim.

Incorrect — same missing k→ğ softening

✅ Onu göreceğim.

I'll see him/her.

Görecek + -im → göreceğim, with soft g.

❌ Kitap okuacağım.

Incorrect — missing buffer -y- after the vowel stem

✅ Kitap okuyacağım.

I'm going to read a book.

After a vowel-final stem like oku-, insert the buffer -y-: okuyacağım.

❌ Biz oraya gideceğiz mi?

Incorrect — question particle should not split, and word choice off

✅ Biz oraya gidecek miyiz?

Are we going to go there?

In future questions the mi sits after the bare -cek, before a separate copular form: gidecek miyiz, not gideceğiz mi.

❌ Onlar gelmeyecekler değil.

Incorrect — wrong negation; future negates internally

✅ Onlar gelmeyecekler.

They aren't going to come.

The future negates with -mAyAcAK inside the verb: gelmeyecekler, no separate değil.

Key takeaways

Suffix -(y)AcAK, two-way harmony: -acak (back) / -ecek (front); it does not round.
Add a buffer -y- after vowel stems: bekleyeceğim, okuyacağız.
The final k softens to ğ before vowel-initial endings: geleceğim, göreceğim, yapacağım, geleceğiz — but stays k in geleceksin, gelecek, gelecekler.
Negate with -mAyAcAK: gelmeyecek, gitmeyecekler.
The same form -(y)AcAK doubles as the future participle in relative clauses: okuyacağım kitap "the book I'll read".

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