Returning to your childhood neighborhood after a long time away can be a melancholic experience. Things change, and you might feel like a tourist in your own hometown. To describe how long it has been since an action last occurred, Turkish uses a specific temporal converb.
Elapsed Time: -mayalı / -meyeli
Adding the suffix -(y)alı or -(y)eli to a positive verb means "since doing" an action. To express how much time has passed since an action last occurred, add this suffix to the negative verb stem.
Verb Stem + -ma / -me + -yalı / -yeli
This always forms -mayalı or -meyeli. While it literally translates to "since not doing," it is understood in English as "since [someone] last did."
This converb does not take personal endings; the subject is understood from context, pronouns, or the main clause.
| Since I last walked these streets, they built brand new buildings. | Bu sokakları adımlamayalı yepyeni binalar yaptılar. |
| Since I last went to that old coffeehouse, the regulars changed completely. | O eski kıraathaneye gitmeyeli müdavimler tamamen değişti. |
Observing Changes
The main clause often describes what has changed or happened during your absence.
| Since I last returned to this city, both the neighborhood became covered in concrete and familiar people decreased. | Bu şehre gelmeyeli hem mahalle betonlaştı hem de aşina insanlar azaldı. |
| Since I last saw my old school, they built a brand new building; it reminds me of nothing. | Eski okulumu görmeyeli yepyeni bir bina yaptılar, bana hiçbir şey anımsatmıyor. |
Expressing Unfamiliarity
A common way to complete a -mayalı sentence is by stating that a long time has passed (using phrases like zaman geçti, zaman oldu, or yıllar geçti).
When enough time passes, returning home might make you feel like a stranger:
| feeling of being a stranger | yabancılık |
This noun pairs with the verb çekmek (to experience/suffer) to create the phrase yabancılık çekmek (to feel like a stranger / to feel out of place).
| It has been a long time since I returned to the neighborhood, I feel unfamiliarity as if in exile. | Mahalleye dönmeyeli uzun zaman oldu, sanki gurbette gibi yabancılık çekiyorum. |
| Years have passed since I saw the old neighbors, now I feel a sad unfamiliarity. | Eski komşuları görmeyeli yıllar geçti, şimdi hüzünlü bir yabancılık çekiyorum. |