doldurmak: fill a container, complete a form

The idea

Doldurmak describes making something full. A specific container takes the accusative, and its contents can be introduced with ile: sürahiyi suyla doldurmak. Form doldurmak means to complete a form; bu formu doldurmak identifies a particular one. Keep the stem doldur- in dolduruyorum, doldurdum, dolduracağım and habitual doldururum. The negatives include doldurmuyorum and doldurmadım. For a polite request, use doldurur musunuz?; the question word is separate. The person ending often makes a subject pronoun unnecessary.

Examples

• Ben sürahiyi suyla dolduruyorum.I am filling the jug with water.
• Biz kutuları kitaplarla doldurduk.We filled the boxes with books.
• Yarın bu formu dolduracağım.I will fill in this form tomorrow.
• Her sabah kuşların kabını doldururum.I fill the birds’ bowl every morning.
• Şişeyi ağzına kadar doldurma.Don’t fill the bottle to the brim.
• Bu bardağı tekrar doldurur musunuz?Would you fill this glass again, please?
• Sürahiyi tamamen doldurmadım.I did not fill the jug completely.
• Depo sonunda doldu.The tank finally filled up.

Watch out

Do not confuse doldurmak with dolmak. In Depoyu doldurdum, I filled the tank; in Depo doldu, the tank became full, without saying who caused it. The tank changes from the object to the subject. An English sentence with “fill” can therefore need either Turkish verb.

Try it yourself

1. Complete with the present continuous of doldurmak (to fill). Ben şu anda sürahiyi ___.

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   dolduruyorum

   dolduruyorum: the action is happening now, so doldur- takes -uyor after its last vowel u. The ending -um identifies the speaker.

2. Complete with the future of doldurmak (to fill). Yarın biz bu kutuları ___.

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   dolduracağız

   dolduracağız: yarın sets the action tomorrow and biz requires the first-person plural. The future -acak changes its final k to ğ before -ız.

3. Add the accusative to bardak (glass). Bu ___ suyla doldur.

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   bardağı

   bardağı: bu identifies the glass being filled. Add accusative -ı to bardak and soften its final k to ğ before the vowel.

4. Choose dolmak or doldurmak and use the past in -di: the tank became full. Depo artık boş değil; tamamen ___.

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   doldu

   doldu: the tank itself became full; it is the subject, not something another subject fills. Use the past of dolmak, with no personal ending for this third-person singular subject.

Use it today

Write a sentence about filling a container now, another about completing a form tomorrow, and a polite request to refill a glass. Then describe the container becoming full with dolmak.