Optative: Full Paradigm and Living Forms | Turkish Grammar

The optative is the mood of "let me," "let's," and "may it be so" — it expresses a wish or a proposal rather than a fact. Its suffix is -(y)A, and on paper it has a complete six-person paradigm. But the most important thing to know is that the paradigm is asymmetrically alive: the first persons are everyday speech, while the second and third persons survive mainly in poetry, proverbs and elevated prose. This page gives you the whole table so you recognise every form, and tells you frankly which ones to actually use. For the deep dive on the productive forms, see the optative -(y)A page; for "shall I…?" questions, see optative questions.

The full paradigm — and how alive each person is

Person	Suffix	gel- (come)	bekle- (wait)	Currency today
1sg (let me / shall I)	-(y)AyIm	geleyim	bekleyeyim	everyday
2sg (may you)	-(y)AsIn	gelesin	bekleyesin	archaic / literary
3sg (may he/she/it)	-(y)A	gele	bekleye	archaic / set phrases
1pl (let's)	-(y)AlIm	gelelim	bekleyelim	everyday
2pl (may you)	-(y)AsInIz	gelesiniz	bekleyesiniz	archaic / literary
3pl (may they)	-(y)AlAr	geleler	bekleyeler	archaic / literary

The suffix -(y)A harmonises two ways (a / e): gel-e-, yap-a-. The buffer -y- appears after a vowel stem, so bekle- gives bekleyeyim, bekleyelim, never bekleeyim. That is the entire shape of the paradigm. The complication is not the morphology — it is the usage, which the rightmost column captures.

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The optative paradigm is six-for-show, two-for-go. Only the first persons — geleyim "let me come" and gelelim "let's come" — are everyday Turkish. The 2nd and 3rd persons are archaic; in real speech their job is done by the imperative -sIn (gelsin "let him come").

The living first persons: geleyim and gelelim

These two you will use constantly. -(y)AyIm (1sg) proposes an action by yourself — "let me," "I'll just," "shall I?". -(y)AlIm (1pl) proposes an action by us — "let's." Together they fill exactly the slot the imperative leaves empty, since there is no first-person imperative.

Sen otur, ben kahveleri getireyim.

You sit down, let me bring the coffees.

Hava güzel, biraz yürüyelim mi?

The weather's nice — shall we walk a bit?

Acele etmeyelim, daha çok vaktimiz var.

Let's not rush — we still have plenty of time.

Bir saniye, şu numarayı not alayım.

One second, let me jot down that number.

The negative is built with the ordinary -mA-, slotted in before the optative ending: gelmeyeyim "let me not come," gelmeyelim "let's not come." Because -mA- ends in a vowel, the buffer -y- appears here too: gelme-y-eyim → gelmeyeyim.

Onu şimdi aramayalım, geç oldu, yarın konuşuruz.

Let's not call him now — it's late, we'll talk tomorrow.

To turn the first-person optative into a real question — "shall I?", "shall we?" — you add the question particle mI as a separate word: geleyim mi? "shall I come?", gidelim mi? "shall we go?". This is one of the most useful structures in conversational Turkish.

Pencereyi açayım mı, yoksa üşür müsün?

Shall I open the window, or will you get cold?

The archaic persons: gelesin, gele, gelesiniz, geleler

The 2nd- and 3rd-person optatives are real Turkish you must recognise but should not produce in ordinary speech. They sound elevated, old-fashioned, or poetic. In everyday Turkish their meaning is carried by the imperative: "let him come" is gelsin (imperative), not gele (optative). Saying gele in conversation lands like saying "may he cometh" in English — comprehensible, but conspicuously archaic.

Where you do meet them is in fixed expressions, blessings, curses, proverbs and literature, where the optative's wish-flavour is exactly the point:

Allah kabul ede.

May God accept it. (literary / pious set phrase — everyday speech says Allah kabul etsin.)

Ne yapasın, kader böyleymiş.

What can you do — fate was like this. (literary / set turn of phrase)

Var olasın, evladım.

Bless you / long may you live, my child. (literary, affectionate)

The third-person plural geleler is the rarest of all; in modern usage you will essentially always meet gelsinler (imperative) instead. Treat gelesin / gele / gelesiniz / geleler as a reading-and-recognition set, not a speaking set.

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For 2nd and 3rd person "may you / may he," default to the imperative, not the optative. Say gelsin, not gele; gelsinler, not geleler. Reserve the optative 2nd/3rd forms for quoting poetry, proverbs, prayers and curses.

Why the paradigm is lopsided

The asymmetry is not random. Historically the optative was a full mood covering all persons. Over time the imperative, which has its own dedicated 3rd person in -sIn, took over the second- and third-person "let X" jobs, because they overlap almost perfectly in meaning. The first persons had nowhere to migrate — the imperative has no first person, since you cannot command yourself — so they stayed, and they thrive. The result is a paradigm that looks complete in a textbook but is, in living speech, essentially a two-form mood plus a museum.

This is a useful pattern to internalise: in Turkish, wishes about myself/ourselves → optative (geleyim, gelelim); wishes/commands about you or them → imperative (gel, gelin, gelsin, gelsinler). The optative and imperative are two halves of one functional system. For how the optative slots into the broader "subjunctive-like" territory English handles with that-clauses and let, see subjunctive equivalents.

Common mistakes

❌ O da bizimle gele.

Archaic in speech — for 'let him come too' modern speech uses the imperative: gelsin.

✅ O da bizimle gelsin.

Let him come with us too.

Using the 3sg optative gele in conversation is the classic over-correction by learners who have just discovered the optative. It is grammatical but archaic; the everyday form is gelsin.

❌ Gelsin kahveleri getireyim.

Incorrect — 'let me bring' is first person; that is the optative geleyim, not the imperative -sIn.

✅ Ben kahveleri getireyim.

Let me bring the coffees.

❌ Gelelimyim.

Incorrect — don't stack endings; 1pl 'let's come' is simply gelelim.

✅ Gelelim.

Let's come / let's go.

❌ Bekleeyim bir saniye.

Incorrect — after a vowel stem the buffer y is required: bekleyeyim.

✅ Bir saniye bekleyeyim.

Let me wait a second.

Key takeaways

The optative suffix is -(y)A, harmonising two ways (a / e), with a buffer -y- after vowel stems.
Only the first persons are everyday: geleyim "let me come," gelelim "let's come" — they fill the gap left by the imperative having no first person.
The 2nd and 3rd persons (gelesin, gele, gelesiniz, geleler) are archaic/literary; in speech their meaning is carried by the imperative -sIn / -sInlAr (gelsin, gelsinler).
Negatives slot -mA- in: gelmeyeyim, gelmeyelim.
Add the question particle for proposals: geleyim mi? "shall I?", gidelim mi? "shall we?" — see optative questions.

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