görmek: to see

The idea

The stem gör- has the rounded front vowel ö, and that vowel passes its roundness on to the next ending: -iyor becomes -üyor (görüyorum) and -di becomes -dü (gördüm). The future -ecek stays unrounded, because its vowel only chooses between e and a: göreceğim. Before a person ending that starts with a vowel its k becomes ğ: göreceğim, but göreceksin.

Examples

• Seni yarın göreceğim.I will see you tomorrow.The k of -ecek turns into ğ before the vowel of -im: göreceğim. The pronoun ben is dropped because -im already says "I".
• Ali dün akşam Ayşe'yi gördü.Ali saw Ayşe yesterday evening.The third person in the past has no person ending: gördü. The object Ayşe takes the accusative -yi after the apostrophe.
• Pencereden denizi görüyorum.I can see the sea from the window.With görmek the present continuous often means "can see". The ö of the stem rounds -iyor to -üyor.
• Burada hiçbir şey görmüyorum.I cannot see anything here.Turkish negates the verb, not the noun: hiçbir şey stays positive in form and görmüyorum carries the negation.
• Dün seni görmedim.I did not see you yesterday.After -me- the last vowel is e, so the past ending is -di again, not -dü: görmedim.
• Siz bizi görüyor musunuz?Do you (all) see us?The question particle mu is written apart and takes the person ending: görüyor musunuz.
• görüyorumI seegör·üyor-iyor / -ıyor / -uyor / -üyor: happening now·um-im / -sin / -iz / -siniz: I am, you are, we are
• gördünüzyou (all) sawgör·dü-di, -dı, -du, -dü, -ti: the past (geldi, yaptı)·nüzPast person endings: -m, -n, -k, -niz, -ler
• görmedimI did not seegör·medi-medi / -madı: the negative past·mPast person endings: -m, -n, -k, -niz, -ler

Watch out

Learners often write göriyorum and gördim, copying the i of verbs like gelmek. After ö comes ü: görüyorum, gördüm. Also, görmek is seeing what comes into your sight; to look at something on purpose you need bakmak: Resme bakıyorum.

Try it yourself

1. I see you. Fill in görmek in the present continuous.

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   görüyorum

   görüyorum: the stem vowel ö is rounded, so -iyor becomes -üyor; then comes -um for "I".

2. I saw him yesterday. Fill in görmek in the past.

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   gördüm

   gördüm: after r the past ending starts with d, the rounded vowel gives -dü, then -m for "I".

3. We will see Ali tomorrow. Fill in görmek in the future.

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   göreceğiz

   göreceğiz: -ecek keeps its e, and its k becomes ğ because -iz starts with a vowel.

4. You do not see me. Use the negative present continuous of görmek.

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   görmüyorsun

   görmüyorsun: the e of the negative -me- drops before -iyor, and the rounded ö turns it into -üyor: görmüyorsun, not görmiyorsun.

Use it today

Write three sentences about what you saw, see and will see, one per tense, and mark the vowel of each ending after gör-.