The past of tenses showed how Turkish stacks the copular past -(y)DI onto a primary tense to make the imperfect, the pluperfect, and so on. This page is its perfect mirror image. Stack the evidential copular -(y)mIş onto a primary tense instead, and you get the reported / inferred version of that tense — a "so I hear," "apparently," "they say" layer. Geliyor "he's coming" becomes geliyormuş "apparently he's coming"; gelecek "he will come" becomes gelecekmiş "they say he'll come." Once you see this symmetry, a whole list of forms that competitors present as separate tenses collapses into a single pattern.
The symmetry, at a glance
Every primary tense has two compound versions: a witnessed past (with copular -DI) and a reported version (with copular -(y)mIş). They are built identically — only the copular suffix differs.
| Primary tense | Witnessed: + -(y)DI | Reported: + -(y)mIş |
|---|---|---|
| continuous -(I)yor | geliyordu (was coming) | geliyormuş (apparently coming) |
| future -(y)AcAk | gelecekti (was going to come) | gelecekmiş (reportedly will come) |
| aorist -(A)r/-Ir | gelirdi (used to come) | gelirmiş (reportedly comes/would) |
The copular -(y)mIş behaves just like the past copula's -(y)DI in its mechanics: four-way harmony (-mış/-miş/-muş/-müş), a buffer y after a vowel, and the Type-1 personal endings (geliyormuşum, geliyormuşsun). The one difference from -DI: the m never hardens to a t, so even after the voiceless k of -AcAk you get -miş (gelecekmiş), not a t-form.
Murat aramış, biraz geç kalacakmış, başlamadan beklemeyelim demiş.
Murat called — he'll be a bit late, he said, and said not to wait before starting.
-(I)yormuş — reportedly ongoing
Add -(y)mIş to the present continuous and you report an action in progress that you did not witness — you were told about it, or you infer it. Translation hinges on context: "apparently he is coming" (right now, reported) or "apparently he was coming" (the report concerns a past ongoing action).
| Person | çalış- (work) |
|---|---|
| ben | çalışıyormuşum |
| sen | çalışıyormuşsun |
| o | çalışıyormuş |
| biz | çalışıyormuşuz |
| siz | çalışıyormuşsunuz |
| onlar | çalışıyormuşlar |
Ayşe yeni bir şirkette çalışıyormuş, çok memnunmuş.
Ayşe is working at a new company (I hear), and she's very happy with it.
Bütün gece ders çalışıyormuşsun, hiç uyumamışsın demek.
So you were studying all night (apparently) — you didn't sleep at all, then.
-(y)AcAkmIş — reportedly going to
Stack -(y)mIş on the future -(y)AcAk for a reported intention or prediction: "they say he'll…," "apparently she's going to…." Because the m doesn't harden, it stays -miş after the k: gelecekmiş, gidecekmiş, yapacakmış.
Hafta sonu hava bozacakmış, pikniği iptal etsek mi?
The weather's supposed to turn this weekend — shall we cancel the picnic?
Yeni müdür gelecek ay göreve başlayacakmış.
The new manager will reportedly take up the post next month.
-Irmiş — reportedly habitual
Stack -(y)mIş on the aorist and you report a habit or general truth you take on someone else's authority — folklore, hearsay about a custom, "they say that…." The aorist ends in r, so the suffix is -miş: gelirmiş, içermiş, yüzermiş.
Dedem gençken her gün denizde yüzermiş, kışın bile.
My grandfather, when he was young, used to swim in the sea every day (so they say) — even in winter.
Bu çayı her sabah içerse insan yüz yaşına kadar yaşarmış.
If you drink this tea every morning, supposedly you live to a hundred.
The reported aorist is the natural voice for proverbs, traditional wisdom, and "they say" generalizations — claims passed down rather than personally verified.
The crucial distinction: copular -(y)mIş vs lexical -mIş
This is where B2 learners stumble, and it deserves a sharp statement. There are two different -mIş in the language:
- Lexical -mIş — attaches directly to a bare verb stem and makes the evidential past: gel- + miş = gelmiş "he came (apparently)."
- Copular -(y)mIş — attaches to an already-tensed predicate (a -(I)yor form, a noun, an adjective) and adds the evidential layer on top: geliyor + muş = geliyormuş "he's coming (apparently)."
They look the same in isolation but do different jobs. The giveaway is what comes before the -mIş: a bare stem (gel-miş) means the lexical evidential past; a tense marker (geliyor-muş, gelecek-miş) means the copular evidential stacked on a tense. Mixing them up — say, trying to read geliyormuş as a past tense, or attaching copular -mIş where you meant the simple past — is the signature error here.
Gelmiş ama içeri girmemiş, kapıdan dönmüş.
He came but didn't go in — he turned back at the door (so I'm told).
Geliyormuş ama biraz gecikecekmiş, yolda trafik varmış.
He's on his way (I hear) but he'll be a little late — there's traffic, apparently.
In the first sentence every -mIş is lexical (bare stems: gel-, gir-, dön-) → simple evidential past. In the second, geliyormuş and gecikecekmiş are copular -(y)mIş stacked on the continuous and the future → reported continuous and reported future. Same suffix shape, structurally different.
Why this matters: a clean system, not a long list
Some textbooks list "the reported past continuous," "the reported future," "the reported aorist," and "the inferential perfect" as four separate items to memorize. They are nothing of the kind. They are one operation — primary tense + copular -(y)mIş — applied to four different stems, exactly parallel to how the past-of-tenses apply primary tense + copular -(y)DI. Hold the two columns side by side and the whole compound system of Turkish reduces to: pick a tense, then choose your evidential copula — witnessed -DI or reported -(y)mIş. The discourse choreography of when speakers switch between them is on the evidentiality in discourse page.
Önce burada oturuyorlarmış, sonra şehir dışına taşınacaklarmış.
At first they were living here (I gather), and later they were going to move out of the city (so I heard).
Common mistakes
❌ Gelecektmiş yarın.
Incorrect — the copular -mIş never hardens to a t-form, so no t after -AcAk: gelecekmiş.
✅ Yarın gelecekmiş.
He'll come tomorrow, apparently.
❌ Ayşe çalışmış yeni şirkette.
For 'she is working there, I hear', a bare stem + -mIş gives only the simple past 'she worked'. Stack -mIş on the continuous: çalışıyormuş.
✅ Ayşe yeni şirkette çalışıyormuş.
Ayşe is working at the new company (I hear).
❌ Hava bozacaktı, şemsiye al.
A forecast you heard is reported, not witnessed; use -AcAkmIş: bozacakmış.
✅ Hava bozacakmış, şemsiye al.
The weather's going to turn (they say) — take an umbrella.
❌ Geliyordıymış.
Incorrect — you stack one copular suffix, not both. Either witnessed geliyordu or reported geliyormuş, never both.
✅ Geliyormuş.
He's coming, apparently.
❌ Dedem her gün yüzerdi.
If you're relaying family lore you never saw, the reported aorist fits: yüzermiş.
✅ Dedem her gün yüzermiş.
My grandfather used to swim every day (so they say).
The master error to avoid is conflating the copular -(y)mIş (an evidential layer on a tense) with the lexical -mIş (the simple evidential past on a bare stem). Read the slot before the suffix: tensed stem → copular; bare stem → lexical.
Key takeaways
- The reported-of-tenses are primary tense + copular -(y)mIş — the exact evidential mirror of the past-of-tenses (primary tense + -(y)DI).
- -(I)yormuş = reportedly ongoing; -(y)AcAkmIş = reportedly going to (forecasts, rumors, second-hand plans); -Irmiş = reportedly habitual (proverbs, folklore, "they say").
- The copular -mIş keeps a buffer y, harmonizes four ways, and never hardens to t — so gelecekmiş, not gelecektmiş.
- Keep copular -(y)mIş (on a tensed stem) distinct from lexical -mIş (the simple evidential past on a bare stem): geliyor-muş vs gel-miş.
- The whole compound system is one symmetry — pick a tense, then pick witnessed -DI or reported -(y)mIş.
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Start learning Turkish→Related Topics
- Past of Tenses: -Iyordu, -Irdi, -AcAktI, -mIştIB1 — Turkish builds its imperfect, habitual-past, future-in-past and pluperfect simply by stacking the copular past -(y)DI onto a primary tense: geliyordu 'he was coming', gelirdi 'he used to come', gelecekti 'he was going to come', gelmişti 'he had come'.
- Reported Copula: -(y)mIşB1 — The evidential copula -(y)mIş marks a state as hearsay, inference, or surprise rather than direct knowledge: O zenginmiş means 'apparently he's rich' — you were told it or infer it, you didn't witness it.
- 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.
- Evidentiality as a Stance ResourceB2 — How Turkish speakers exploit the -DI / -mIş contrast to manage commitment and responsibility — -DI to vouch as an eyewitness, -mIş to distance yourself ('I only heard it') for gossip, reporting, and tactfully dodging blame.