çalışmak: to work, to study

The idea

Çalışmak means to work, to study and, for a machine, to run. The stem çalış never changes: çalışıyorum, çalıştım, çalışacağım. A workplace takes the locative (bankada, fabrikada), what you prepare for takes the dative (sınava çalışıyorum), and ders çalışmak means to study or do homework.

Examples

• Annem bankada çalışıyor.My mother works at a bank.Banka ends in a vowel, so the locative is -da: bankada. The workplace takes the locative, not the dative.
• Dün akşam geç çalıştık.We worked late last night.Çalış ends in the voiceless ş, so the past ending starts with t: çalıştık, never çalışdık. The pronoun biz is not needed.
• Yarın sınava çalışacağım.Tomorrow I will study for the exam.What you study for takes the dative: sınava. Before the ending -ım the k of -acak turns into ğ: çalışacağım.
• Asansör bugün çalışmıyor.The lift is not working today.Çalışmak also says that a machine works. The negative -mı- comes before -yor: çalışmıyor, with ı after the back vowel.
• Çocuklar odada ders çalışıyor.The children are studying in the room.Ders çalışmak means to study or do schoolwork, and ders takes no ending. A plural subject usually keeps the verb singular: çocuklar çalışıyor.
• Babamla ders çalışıyorum.I am studying with my father.The suffix -la means with. After babam the last vowel is a, so it is babamla, written together.
• çalışıyorumI am workingçalış·ıyor-iyor / -ıyor / -uyor / -üyor: happening now·um-im / -sin / -iz / -siniz: I am, you are, we are
• çalıştılarthey workedçalış·tı-di, -dı, -du, -dü, -ti: the past (geldi, yaptı)·larPast person endings: -m, -n, -k, -niz, -ler

Watch out

The stem ends in the voiceless ş, so the past starts with t: çalıştım, never çalışdım. Do not use çalışmak alone for a degree either: çalışıyorum sounds like a job, so say üniversitede okuyorum for studying at university.

Try it yourself

1. Put çalışmak into the present continuous for sen: you are working now.

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   çalışıyorsun

   çalışıyorsun: the stem çalış ends in a consonant, so -ıyor joins directly, with ı after the back vowel; the personal ending for you is -sun.

2. Put çalışmak into the past for onlar: they worked yesterday.

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   çalıştılar

   çalıştılar: after the voiceless ş the ending starts with t, and after the back vowel ı that gives -tı; the plural is -lar.

3. Put çalışmak into the future for ben: I will work tomorrow.

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   çalışacağım

   çalışacağım: after the back vowel ı comes -acak, and before the ending -ım the k turns into ğ.

4. Add the suffix: my father works at a factory.

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   fabrikada

   fabrikada: the workplace takes the locative; fabrika ends in a voiced sound (a vowel) and its last vowel a gives -da.

Use it today

Write three sentences: where someone in your family works, what you are studying for this week, and what you did last night. Check the ending after ş each time.