Turkish has two ordinary ways to say "it happened," and the choice between them is not about time — it is about how you know. The definite past -DI is the one you use for events you saw, did, or otherwise vouch for as established fact: geldim "I came," yaptı "he did it," gördük "we saw it." Its partner, the evidential -mIş, is for things you only heard about or inferred. This page covers -DI, the "I-was-there" past — by far the most common past tense in everyday speech, and the first one you should master.
The -DI conjugation
The suffix has the underlying shape -DI. Two regular processes reshape it: the vowel harmonizes four ways (-dı / -di / -du / -dü), and the D hardens to t after a voiceless consonant (giving -tı / -ti / -tu / -tü — see below). On top of the suffix go the short Type-2 personal endings: -m, -n, -Ø, -k, -nIz, -lAr.
| Person | gel- (come) | al- (take) | yap- (do) — voiceless | gör- (see) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ben (I) | geldim | aldım | yaptım | gördüm |
| sen (you, sg.) | geldin | aldın | yaptın | gördün |
| o (he/she/it) | geldi | aldı | yaptı | gördü |
| biz (we) | geldik | aldık | yaptık | gördük |
| siz (you, pl./formal) | geldiniz | aldınız | yaptınız | gördünüz |
| onlar (they) | geldiler | aldılar | yaptılar | gördüler |
Notice how the four columns differ only in their vowel, which tracks the last vowel of the stem: e → i, a → ı, o → u, ö → ü. The personal endings are constant. Once you can do geldim, you can do every verb in the language.
Dün akşam seni aradım ama açmadın.
I called you last night but you didn't pick up.
Treni kaçırdık, bir sonrakini bekledik.
We missed the train; we waited for the next one.
Kapıyı kapattın mı? Çıkmadan kontrol et.
Did you close the door? Check before you leave.
D hardens to t after voiceless consonants
When the verb stem ends in one of the voiceless consonants — p, ç, t, k, f, s, ş, h (the fıstıkçı şahap set) — the D of the suffix surfaces as t. This is the regular d → t alternation, the same one you meet in the past copula and the -DIr suffix.
| Stem ends in… | Verb | Past | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| voiced (l, r, n, vowel…) | gel-, al-, ara- | geldi, aldı, aradı | came, took, called |
| voiceless (p, t, k, ç, ş…) | git-, bak-, yap-, geç- | gitti, baktı, yaptı, geçti | went, looked, did, passed |
So bak- "look" gives baktım "I looked," and git- "go" gives gitti "he went" (with the double t you can both see and hear). The rule is automatic: if the last sound of the stem is voiceless, write t; otherwise write d.
Sabah erken kalktım, kahvaltı yaptım, işe gittim.
I got up early, had breakfast, and went to work.
Pencereden baktı ama kimseyi göremedi.
He looked out of the window but couldn't see anyone.
What -DI really means: "I vouch for it"
The textbook label is "definite past" or "seen past," but the honest description is witnessed/asserted past. By choosing -DI you commit to the event as something you have firsthand authority over — you saw it, you did it, you were there, or you are otherwise prepared to assert it flatly as fact. This is why -DI is the default for your own actions and for things that happened in front of you.
Bütün gün yağmur yağdı, hiç dışarı çıkamadık.
It rained all day; we couldn't go out at all.
Compare yağmur yağdı "it rained" (I was out in it / I watched it pour) with the evidential yağmur yağmış "it rained, apparently" (I just see the wet streets, I wasn't there). Same event, same time — only the source of knowledge differs. That contrast is the heart of the Turkish past system, and it is laid out in full on the -DI vs -mIş page.
Ne oldu? Yüzün bembeyaz, bir şey mi gördün?
What happened? You're white as a sheet — did you see something?
Annem aradı, akşam yemeğe bekliyormuş bizi.
My mom called; she's expecting us for dinner tonight (she said).
In that last example, notice the split-screen: aradı is -DI because the speaker took the call themselves (witnessed), while bekliyormuş is -mIş because the dinner invitation is reported. Turkish speakers shift between the two within a single sentence whenever the source of knowledge shifts.
How this differs from English
English has only one simple past: "I came," "it rained," "he did it" — used identically whether you witnessed the event or merely heard about it. English cannot mark the difference grammatically; it must add words ("apparently," "I heard," "supposedly"). Turkish bakes the distinction into the verb ending itself. So the single English past tense corresponds to two Turkish tenses, and picking the wrong one is not a stylistic slip — it makes a false claim about your evidence.
This is why English speakers systematically over-use -DI: it feels like "the past tense," so they reach for it everywhere. But using -DI for something you only heard ("My sister got engaged" — when she told you on the phone, you weren't there) sounds, to a Turkish ear, like you are claiming to have witnessed an engagement you did not see. The fix is to learn -mIş as an equal partner from the start.
Komşunun oğlu üniversiteyi bitirmiş, çok sevindim.
The neighbor's son has graduated from university (I heard) — I was so glad.
Here bitirmiş is -mIş (you were told he graduated) but sevindim is -DI (your own gladness — you certainly witnessed that).
Negative and question forms
The past -DI sits after the negative marker [-mA] and combines normally with the question particle. Negative: stem + -ma/-me + -DI + ending — gelmedim "I didn't come," yapmadık "we didn't do it." Question: the past form takes the [-mI] particle as a separate word after it — Geldin mi? "Did you come?"
Hiçbir şey yemedim, sadece kahve içtim.
I didn't eat anything; I just drank coffee.
Filmi gördün mü, yoksa sana anlatayım mı?
Have you seen the film, or shall I tell you about it?
Common mistakes
❌ Çokdu güzel.
Wrong on two counts — and for a verb stem, çok isn't one. The real trap: after a voiceless final the D must harden to t.
❌ Gitdim okula.
Incorrect — git- ends in voiceless t, so the suffix is -ti: gittim.
✅ Okula gittim.
I went to school.
❌ Kardeşim nişanlandı.
If she only told you by phone, this is misleading — it asserts you witnessed the engagement. For reported news use -mIş.
✅ Kardeşim nişanlanmış.
My sister got engaged (I hear / so she told me).
❌ Ben geldiyim.
Incorrect — the past takes the short Type-2 ending -m, never the Type-1 -Im: geldim.
✅ Ben geldim.
I came.
❌ Biz aldıyız.
Incorrect — first-person plural past is -k, not -yIz: aldık.
✅ Biz aldık.
We took (it).
❌ Baktım mı sana?
Word order is off — the question particle follows the verb cleanly: Sana baktım mı?
✅ Sana baktım mı?
Did I look at you?
The two recurring traps are mechanical and conceptual. Mechanically, learners write -dim/-dik after voiceless stems (it should be -tim/-tik) and bolt on the long Type-1 endings (geldiyim for geldim). Conceptually, they pour every English "I did" into -DI even when the event was only reported — which is exactly the line -mIş is there to draw.
Key takeaways
- The definite past -DI reports events you witnessed, did, or vouch for as fact: geldim, aldın, yaptı, gördük.
- It harmonizes four ways (-dı/-di/-du/-dü) and the D hardens to t after a voiceless consonant: gitti, baktım, yaptık.
- It takes the short Type-2 endings (-m, -k), so "I came" is geldim, "we came" geldik — never geldiyim/aldıyız.
- Its meaning is evidential: -DI says "I know this firsthand." Its opposite, -mIş, says "I heard/inferred this." Compare yağmur yağdı (witnessed) with yağmur yağmış (inferred).
- When in doubt about which past to use, work through the -DI vs -mIş decision guide.
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- The Evidential Past -mIş (Reportative/Inferential)A2 — The evidential past -mIş (gelmiş 'apparently came', yağmur yağmış 'it evidently rained') marks an event as known by hearsay, inference, or fresh surprise rather than direct witness — the single most distinctively Turkish feature for English speakers.
- Type 2 Endings (-m set)A2 — The Type 2 personal endings -m, -n, -Ø, -k, -nIz, -lAr are the short subject markers used only after the definite past -DI and the conditional -sA — so 'I came' is geldim and 'we came' is geldik, never the Type-1 forms.
- -DI vs -mIş: Witnessed vs Reported PastA2 — How to choose between the two Turkish past tenses based on your source of knowledge, not the timing of the event.
- Suffix Hardening: the D and C ArchiphonemesA2 — The mirror image of softening — a suffix-initial D hardens to t and a suffix-initial C hardens to ç after a voiceless stem, so the locative is kitapta (not *kitapde) and the past is gitti (not *gitdi).