gülmek: to laugh, and laugh at

The idea

The last vowel of gül- is ü, so the endings that follow round with it: gülüyorum, güldüm, gülmüyorum. The future ending -ecek has no rounded shape, so it stays e, and its k becomes ğ before a vowel: gülecek, güleceğim. The person or thing you laugh at takes -e/-a: bana gülüyor, espriye güldük.

Examples

• Bu espriye hepimiz güldük.We all laughed at this joke.What you laugh at takes -e/-a: espri + buffer y + e gives espriye. There is no word for "at".
• Neden bana gülüyorsun?Why are you laughing at me?The pronoun ben becomes bana before -e, not bene. Here it is the person who is laughed at.
• Çocuklar bahçede çok gülüyor.The children are laughing a lot in the garden.
• Şaka komikti ama kimse gülmedi.The joke was funny, but nobody laughed.The negative -me- sits between the stem and -di: gül-me-di. With kimse (nobody) the verb is negative, as it is in Turkish negative sentences generally.
• Yarın sınavdan sonra çok güleceğiz.Tomorrow, after the exam, we will laugh a lot.-ecek has no rounded shape, so the vowel is e: gülecek. Its k becomes ğ before the vowel of -iz: güleceğiz. After sonra, the word takes -den/-dan: sınavdan.
• Hatasına gülme, ona yardım et.Don't laugh at his or her mistake, help them.The negative imperative is the stem plus -me: gülme, "do not laugh". The mistake laughed at takes -e/-a too: hata-sı-na.
• gülmüyorumI am not laughing.gül·müyor-miyor / -mıyor / -muyor / -müyor: not doing now·um-im / -sin / -iz / -siniz: I am, you are, we areThe vowel of -mi-yor follows the stem: after ü it is rounded, -müyor.
• güldünüzYou (all) laughed.gül·dü-di, -dı, -du, -dü, -ti: the past (geldi, yaptı)·nüzPast person endings: -m, -n, -k, -niz, -ler

Watch out

English says "laugh at me", but Turkish has no word for "at" and no accusative: beni gülüyor is wrong, bana gülüyor is right. Learners also write gülyor or gülıyor; the vowel after the stem is ü, so it is gülüyor.

Try it yourself

1. Present continuous: I am laughing now.

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   gülüyorum

   gülüyorum: the last vowel of gül- is ü, so the present continuous is -üyor, followed by -um for "I".

2. Past tense: We laughed a lot yesterday.

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   güldük

   güldük: the stem ends in the voiced l, so the past begins with d, and the vowel ü rounds it to -dü; -k marks "we".

3. Add the pronoun in the right case: I am not laughing at you.

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   sana

   sana: the one laughed at takes the dative, and sen becomes sana, not sene.

4. Future tense: I will laugh a lot tomorrow.

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   güleceğim

   güleceğim: -ecek cannot round, so the vowel is e, and its k becomes ğ because -im starts with a vowel.

Use it today

Write three sentences about what makes you or your friends laugh, one in each tense, and give every thing or person laughed at the ending -e/-a.