Turkish Conditional Tense (If Clauses) – [Unreal Cond.]
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Turkish Past Unreal Conditionals
Another way to express an unreal conditional is doing it in the Past Perfect tense. Turkish doesn’t necessarily have the Perfect tense let alone the Past Perfect tense, but it is still possible to make a sentence that talks about an unreal hypothetical past conditional. We use the suffix “-seydi/-saydı” to achieve a Past Unreal Conditional followed by the personal suffix. The main clause is similar to how we in unreal conditional, the verb is conjugated in present simple with the past simple personal suffix.
Be sure to follow the Vowel Harmony when selecting the proper “-seydi/-saydı” suffix:
| For Verb Roots that have the last vowel as “a,ı,o,u” | -saydı |
| For Verb Roots that have the last vowel as “e,i,ö,ü” | -seydi |
First, let’s look at how some verbs are made into the Past Unreal Conditional:
| Ben | yapsaydım | If I had done |
| Sen | gelseydin | If you had came |
| O | bulsaydı | If he/she/it had found |
| Biz | yeseydik | If we had eaten |
| Siz | üzülseydiniz | If you had become sad |
| Onlar | gezseydiler | If they had traveled |
Now, let’s see some sentence examples:
- (Eğer) bilseydim ona öyle davranmazdım.
- If I had known, I wouldn’t have treated him like that.
- (Eğer) o işe girseydim şu an müdür olabilirdim.
- If I had entered that job, I could have been a manager now.
- (Eğer) param olsaydı o elbiseyi alırdım.
- If I had the money, I would have bought that dress.
We can also add the model verb “can” suffix like in the second sentence example to talk about a past possibility that could have occurred.
Negative Past Unreal Conditional
Negative past unreal conditionals can be made by adding the “-me/-ma” negative suffix before the “- seydi/-saydı” suffix.
First, let’s look at how some verbs are made into the Negative Past Unreal Conditional:
| Ben | yapmasaydım | If I hadn’t done |
| Sen | gelmeseydin | If you hadn’t came |
| O | bulmasaydı | If he/she/it hadn’t found |
| Biz | yemeseydik | If we hadn’t eaten |
| Siz | üzülmeseydiniz | If you hadn’t become sad |
| Onlar | gezmeseydiler | If they hadn’t traveled |
Now, let’s see some sentence examples:
- (Eğer) geçen hafta Ahmet’i görmeseydim, Ankara’ya döndüğünü bilmezdim.
- If I hadn’t seen Ahmet last week, I wouldn’t have known he returned to Ankara.
- (Eğer) o kadar çikolata yemeseydin karnın ağrımazdı.
- If you hadn’t eaten so many chocolates, your stomach wouldn’t have hurt.
- (Eğer) cüzdanını düşürmeseydin hırsızlar tüm paranı harcamazdı.
- If you hadn’t dropped your wallet, the thief wouldn’t have spent all your money.
Other Conditional Types
Below are the charts showing other kinds of conditional sentences you can make in Turkish.
For Real Past Conditionals, we add the “-dıy/diy/-duy/-düy” suffix after the verb root following the conditional suffix “-sa/se”:
| Ben | yaptıysam | If I had done |
| Sen | geldiysen | If you had came |
| O | bulduysa | If he/she/it had found |
| Biz | yediysek | If we had eaten |
| Siz | üzüldüyseniz | If you had become sad |
| Onlar | gezdiyseler | If they had traveled |
For Real Present Continuous Conditionals, we add the “-yor” suffix after the verb root following the conditional suffix “-sa”:
| Ben | yapıyorsam | If I am doing |
| Sen | geliyorsan | If you are coming |
| O | buluyorsa | If he/she/it is finding |
| Biz | yiyorsak | If we are eating |
| Siz | üzülüyorsanız | If you are becoming sad |
| Onlar | geziyorsalar | If they are traveling |
For the negative version of the Real Present Continuous Conditional, we simply add the “-me/-ma” suffix after the verb root following the present continuous suffix and the conditional suffix:
| Ben | yapmıyorsam | If I am not doing |
| Sen | gelmiyorsan | If you are not coming |
| O | bulmuyorsa | If he/she/it is not finding |
| Biz | yemiyorsak | If we are not eating |
| Siz | üzülmüyorsanız | If you are not becoming sad |
| Onlar | gezmiyorsalar | If they are not traveling |
For future real conditionals, we conjugate the verb in the future tense “-ecek/-acak” and later add the conditional suffix in addition to the personal suffix:
| Ben | yapacaksam | If I will do |
| Sen | geleceksen | If you will come |
| O | bulacaksa | If he/she/it will find |
| Biz | yiyeceksek | If we will eat |
| Siz | üzülecekseniz | If you will become sad |
| Onlar | gezecekseler | If they will travel |
Negative version of the future real conditional is done by adding the negative suffix “-me(y)/-ma(y)” after the verb root before the future suffix:
| Ben | yapmayacaksam | If I will not do |
| Sen | gelmeyeceksen | If you will not come |
| O | bulmayacaksa | If he/she/it will not find |
| Biz | yemeyeceksek | If we will not eat |
| Siz | üzülmeyecekseniz | If you will not become sad |
| Onlar | gezmeyecekseler | If they will not travel |
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