Simple past with -di: what happened

The idea

Turkish reports a finished event with -di on the bare verb stem, followed by a person ending: gel-di-m, yap-tı-n, kal-dı-k. The order is always stem, -di, person. Use it for something that is over, usually with a time word such as dün (yesterday), geçen hafta (last week) or az önce (just now). The third person singular has no person ending: Ali geldi. Which of the eight shapes of -di you write depends on vowel harmony and on the last sound of the stem.

Examples

• Ben dün kitap aldım.I bought a book yesterday.The pronoun ben may be dropped, because -m already says “I”: Dün kitap aldım.
• Ali bu sabah erken kalktı.Ali got up early this morning.
• Biz geçen hafta İstanbul'a gittik.We went to Istanbul last week.
• Sen telefonu nereye koydun?Where did you put the phone?
• Çocuklar dün parkta çok koştu.The children ran a lot in the park yesterday.A plural subject usually keeps the verb singular: koştu. Koştular is also correct when you speak about people.
• Az önce yemek yedim.I have just eaten.English “have just” is also the simple past in Turkish: az önce marks how recent it is, and no other form is needed.
• yedimI ateye·di-di, -dı, -du, -dü, -ti: the past (geldi, yaptı)·mPast person endings: -m, -n, -k, -niz, -ler
• kalktıkwe got upkalk·tı-di, -dı, -du, -dü, -ti: the past (geldi, yaptı)·kPast person endings: -m, -n, -k, -niz, -ler
• gördünüzyou saw (siz)gör·dü-di, -dı, -du, -dü, -ti: the past (geldi, yaptı)·nüzPast person endings: -m, -n, -k, -niz, -ler

Watch out

The person is marked on the verb, so the bare form does not fit every subject: Ben geldi is wrong, say Ben geldim or just Geldim, and biz needs -k: geldik, not geldim. There is no separate form for “have just”: Az önce geldim means both “I came a moment ago” and “I have just arrived”.

Try it yourself

1. Write the past form: I went to school yesterday. (git- = go)

   Show answer or example answer

   gittim

   gittim: the stem git- ends in the voiceless sound t, so the ending is -ti, and -m stands for ben; the t is written twice and the stem does not soften as in gidiyorum.

2. Write the past form: What did you do yesterday? (yap- = do)

   Show answer or example answer

   yaptın

   yaptın: yap- ends in the voiceless p, so the ending starts with t, and the back vowel a gives -tı; -n stands for sen.

3. Write the past form: We stayed at home yesterday. (kal- = stay)

   Show answer or example answer

   kaldık

   kaldık: kal- + -dı + -k; biz takes -k, not -m.

4. Write the past form: Ali came early yesterday. (gel- = come)

   Show answer or example answer

   geldi

   geldi: the third person singular has no person ending, so the subject Ali is enough; adding -m would turn it into “I”.

Use it today

Write four sentences about yesterday: one about yourself, one about a friend, one about your family and one about you and someone else together. In each sentence underline the stem, -di and the person ending.