English has a separate-looking form for each shade of the past: "was coming," "used to come," "was going to come," "had come." Turkish builds all of them from one simple move — take a primary tense (continuous, aorist, future, evidential) and stack the copular past -(y)DI onto it. So geliyor "he is coming" + past = geliyordu "he was coming"; gelir "he comes" + past = gelirdi "he used to come." These are not four new tenses to memorize but four transparent combinations of things you already know.
The four past-of-tenses at a glance
| Primary tense |
| Form (o, 3sg) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| continuous -(I)yor | -(I)yor + du | geliyordu | was coming (past continuous) |
| aorist -(A)r/-Ir | -Ir + di | gelirdi | used to come (past habitual) |
| future -(y)AcAk | -AcAk + tı | gelecekti | was going to come (future-in-past) |
| evidential -mIş | -mIş + ti | gelmişti | had come (pluperfect) |
The recurring ingredient is the copular -(y)DI you met on noun and adjective predicates (öğretmendi "he was a teacher"). Here it sits on a tensed verb stem instead, and it carries the same baggage: four-way harmony (-dı/-di/-du/-dü), the D → t hardening after a voiceless final (so -AcAk and -mIş, ending in k and ş, take -tı/-ti: gelecekti, gelmişti), and the short Type-2 personal endings (1sg -m, 1pl -k) that always follow a -DI.
Telefon çaldığında tam çıkıyordum, o yüzden açamadım.
I was just heading out when the phone rang, so I couldn't answer.
-(I)yordu — the past continuous ("was -ing")
Add -DI to the present continuous -(I)yor and you get an action in progress at a past moment — the backdrop against which something else happened. The -yor ends in r (voiced), so the suffix stays -du: geliyordu, çalışıyordu, bekliyordu.
| Person | çalış- (work) |
|---|---|
| ben | çalışıyordum |
| sen | çalışıyordun |
| o | çalışıyordu |
| biz | çalışıyorduk |
| siz | çalışıyordunuz |
| onlar | çalışıyorlardı / çalışıyordular |
Dün gece geç saate kadar çalışıyordum, hiç uyuyamadım.
Last night I was working until late — I couldn't sleep at all.
Çocuklar bahçede oynuyorlardı, biz de onları izliyorduk.
The kids were playing in the garden, and we were watching them.
-Irdi — the past habitual ("used to")
Stack -DI onto the aorist -(A)r/-Ir and you get the past habitual / repeated past — actions that were customary "back then." This is Turkish's "used to" and "would (habitually)." The aorist ends in r, so again -di: gelirdi, giderdi, içerdi.
Çocukken her yaz köye gider, dedemle balığa çıkardık.
As children, we'd go to the village every summer and go fishing with grandpa.
Annem sabahları bize taze poğaça yapardı.
My mother used to make us fresh poğaça in the mornings.
-(y)AcAktI — the future-in-past ("was going to")
Put -DI on the future -(y)AcAk and you get an intention or expectation that pointed forward from a past vantage point — "was going to," "would (later)," often with the flavour of a plan that did or didn't come off. -AcAk ends in voiceless k, so the suffix hardens to -tı: gelecekti, gidecekti, yapacaktı.
Bu akşam sinemaya gidecektik ama yağmur her şeyi bozdu.
We were going to go to the cinema tonight, but the rain ruined everything.
Tam sana söyleyecektim, sen sordun.
I was just about to tell you, and you asked.
The "unfulfilled plan" reading is so common that gelecekti often implies "…but it didn't happen." Context decides whether the plan was carried out.
-mIştI — the pluperfect ("had -ed")
Finally, stack -DI on the evidential -mIş and you get the pluperfect — an event completed before another past reference point: "had come," "had finished." -mIş ends in voiceless ş, so -ti: gelmişti, bitmişti, görmüştüm.
Ben gelmeden önce herkes çoktan gitmişti, salon bomboştu.
By the time I arrived everyone had already left — the hall was empty.
Sana bunu daha önce söylemiştim, unuttun mu?
I'd told you this before — have you forgotten?
A subtle point worth flagging honestly: in -mIştI the evidential force of -mIş is bleached out. Söylemiştim "I had told you" does not mean "I apparently told you" — it is a plain pluperfect about your own definite action. The -mIş here marks anterior completion, and the witnessed assertion comes from the stacked -DI. So -mIştI is a firsthand "had done," not a reportative one. (For the reportative counterpart, where the copular -(y)mIş stacks instead, see the reported of tenses.)
The big picture: stack, don't memorize
The single most useful realization here is that Turkish does not have four irregular past tenses to learn. It has one primary tense set plus one copular past -DI, and it lets you combine them freely. Need "was working"? Take the continuous and add -DI. Need "had finished"? Take the evidential and add -DI. English, by contrast, uses three different auxiliaries ("was," "used to," "had") and a modal ("going to"), with no shared shape — which is exactly why English speakers hunt for distinct Turkish forms that don't exist. Look for the seam: every one of these is [primary tense] + [copular -(y)DI] + [Type-2 ending].
O sıralarda İstanbul'da yaşıyorduk, her hafta sonu Boğaz'a iniyorduk.
Around then we were living in Istanbul, and every weekend we'd head down to the Bosphorus.
Common mistakes
❌ Geldiydim okula.
For 'I had come' there's no -DIydI pluperfect; the pluperfect stacks -DI on -mIş, not on -DI: gelmiştim.
✅ Okula gelmiştim.
I had come to school.
❌ Gelecekdi yarın.
The suffix is written with d here, but -AcAk ends in voiceless k, so the copular -DI hardens to t: gelecekti.
✅ Yarın gelecekti.
He was going to come tomorrow.
❌ Çalışıyordu-m.
Don't separate the ending — the Type-2 ending attaches directly to the -DI, with no break: çalışıyordum.
✅ Çalışıyordum.
I was working.
❌ Her yaz köye gidiyorduk.
For a yearly habit this is wrong — a repeated custom is the past habitual, not the past continuous: giderdik.
✅ Her yaz köye giderdik.
Every summer we used to go to the village.
❌ Geliyordıydı.
Don't double-stack -DI on the continuous; it already takes a single -DI: geliyordu. There is no extra -dıydı.
✅ Geliyordu.
He was coming.
The unifying error is treating these as opaque tenses and mis-segmenting them. Once you see each as tense + -(y)DI, the spelling (where the D hardens) and the endings (always Type-2 after -DI) fall out automatically.
Key takeaways
- The past-of-tenses are primary tense + copular -(y)DI — transparent stacks, not new tenses.
- -(I)yordu = past continuous ("was -ing"); -Irdi = past habitual ("used to"); -(y)AcAktI = future-in-past ("was going to," often unfulfilled); -mIştI = pluperfect ("had -ed").
- The D of the copular -DI hardens to t after the voiceless finals of -AcAk and -mIş: gelecekti, gelmişti.
- In -mIştI the evidential force of -mIş is bleached: it is a firsthand pluperfect, not a reportative one.
- The whole symmetric evidential counterpart — stacking the copular -(y)mIş instead of -(y)DI — is covered on the reported of tenses page.
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Start learning Turkish→Related Topics
- Past Copula: -(y)DI / idiA2 — To say 'was/were' with a noun, adjective, or location, Turkish attaches the past copula i-DI, which cliticizes as -(y)DI onto the predicate: öğretmendim 'I was a teacher', evdeydik 'we were at home'.
- Present Continuous -(I)yorA1 — How to form and use the -(I)yor present, Turkish's everyday tense for ongoing and near-future actions.
- The Future -(y)AcAKA2 — How to form the Turkish future tense, including the k→ğ softening and the buffer -y- after vowel stems.
- 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.