İlgilenmek: take an interest and attend to something

The idea

The interested person or the person attending to something is the subject. Name the focus with ile: seramikle ilgilenmek means to take an interest in ceramics, while fidelerle ilgilenmek means to tend seedlings. The stem ilgilen- keeps its final n: ilgileniyorum, ilgilendim. The future has ilgileneceğim and ilgileneceğiz, with ğ before the vowel; compare ilgilenecek. For a habitual negative, use ilgilenmem or ilgilenmeyiz. The table shows plural endings with onlar; singular verb forms are also possible. In ilgilendiğim konu, the ending identifies me as the interested person; the phrase need not refer to the past.

Examples

• Ben seramikle ilgileniyorum.I am interested in ceramics.
• Babam fidelerle ilgileniyor.My father is tending the seedlings.
• Bu sorunla biz ilgileneceğiz.We will deal with this problem.
• Gençken astronomiyle ilgilenirdim.I used to be interested in astronomy when I was young.
• Ekibimiz yeni üyelerle tek tek ilgilendi.Our team attended to the new members one by one.
• Bu projeyle ilgilenmiyorum; başka bir araştırma yürütüyorum.I am not working on this project; I am conducting another study.
• Müşterilerle kim ilgilenecek?Who will attend to the customers?
• İlgilendiğim konu değişti ama araştırma isteğim aynı kaldı.The subject I am interested in has changed, but my desire to investigate has stayed the same.

Watch out

Do not mark the focus as a direct object: use bu konuyla ilgileniyorum, not bu konuyu ilgileniyorum. To say that the subject interests you, reverse the perspective: Bu konu ilgimi çekiyor. With a person, context decides whether ilgilenmek means caring for them, paying them attention or taking a personal interest.

Try it yourself

1. Fill the gap with “in ceramics”; use the noun with its complement marker.

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   seramikle / seramik ile

   seramikle or seramik ile: the missing phrase names the interest. The joined form keeps the final k because -le begins with a consonant.

2. Fill in “I will deal with it”, using the future tense.

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   ilgileneceğim

   ilgileneceğim: yarın places the action in the future, and ben requires the first-person singular ending. The k of -ecek becomes ğ before that vowel.

3. Use the negative aorist: we do not deal with this kind of work.

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   ilgilenmeyiz

   ilgilenmeyiz: this is a general statement about the work we do not handle. The first-person plural negative aorist uses -meyiz, without the z found in ilgilenmezler.

4. Complete “the subject I am interested in”, using the participle with a first-person singular ending.

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   ilgilendiğim

   ilgilendiğim: the topic is the focus, and benim identifies the person interested. The possessive ending makes this a modifier of konu, not the finite past form ilgilendim.

Use it today

Write a short exchange assigning two tasks. Use a future form to accept one and a negative form to decline the other, then name a subject that interests you with ilgilendiğim konu.