When you walk into the office and see an empty desk, or notice the boss looking particularly grumpy, you naturally start piecing clues together. To make strong logical deductions like "she must be sick" or "he must have missed the bus," Turkish uses the word olmalı.
Deducing Current States
Olmalı is the necessity form of the verb olmak (to be). When you want to state that a current fact or situation must be true based on your observations, you simply place the standalone word olmalı directly after the adjective or noun.
| The office is very quiet today; the manager must be on leave. | Bugün ofis çok sessiz; müdür izinli olmalı. |
| The secretary is also not at her desk; she must be on sick leave. | Sekreter de masasında yok, raporlu olmalı. |
Deducing Past Actions
To deduce that an action must have happened in the past, you will combine the inferential past tense with olmalı.
First, add the -mış / -miş / -muş / -müş suffix to the verb stem (following standard four-way vowel harmony). Then, follow it with the word olmalı.
| to stay up all night | sabahlamak |
- sabahlamak (to stay up all night) + -mış
- olmalı = sabahlamış olmalı (must have stayed up all night)
- kilitlenmek (to get jammed) + -miş
- olmalı = kilitlenmiş olmalı (must have gotten jammed)
| The project is finished; the engineers must have stayed up all night last night. | Proje bitmiş, mühendisler dün gece sabahlamış olmalı. |
| Because there was an accident, the highway must have gotten jammed. | Kaza olduğu için otoyol kilitlenmiş olmalı. |
Laying Out the Evidence
Since these statements are logical conclusions, they are frequently paired with the evidence that led you to them. You can link your clues to your deductions using phrases with için (because / since) or conjunctions like bu yüzden (therefore / for this reason).
| Because a motorcycle is faster, he must have taken the shortcut. | Motosiklet daha hızlı olduğu için kestirme yoldan gitmiş olmalı. |
| The photocopy machine broke down; therefore he must have bought a new printer. | Fotokopi makinesi bozulmuş; bu yüzden yeni bir yazıcı almış olmalı. |
| The boss is very angry; a problem must have come up in the meeting. | Patron çok sinirli; toplantıda bir sorun çıkmış olmalı. |