Turkish Conditional Tense (If Clauses) – Lesson 2

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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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