Use kaçmak for getting away from a place or avoiding something. You will name what someone escapes from and recognise when a different verb is needed.
The idea
With kaçmak, the place, person or thing escaped from takes the ablative: bahçeden kaçmak, benden kaçmak, sorumluluktan kaçmak. The stem keeps its ç: kaçıyorum, kaçarım. The past is kaçtım; the future is kaçacağım, with a change in the future ending, not the stem. The negative present is kaçmıyorum.
| Person | Present continuous | Past | Future | Aorist |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ben | kaçıyorum | kaçtım | kaçacağım | kaçarım |
| sen | kaçıyorsun | kaçtın | kaçacaksın | kaçarsın |
| o | kaçıyor | kaçtı | kaçacak | kaçar |
| biz | kaçıyoruz | kaçtık | kaçacağız | kaçarız |
| siz | kaçıyorsunuz | kaçtınız | kaçacaksınız | kaçarsınız |
| onlar | kaçıyorlar | kaçtılar | kaçacaklar | kaçarlar |
Examples
- Kedi dün bahçeden kaçtı.The cat escaped from the garden yesterday.
- Kuş açık pencereden kaçıyor.The bird is escaping through the open window.
- Biz sorumluluktan kaçmıyoruz.We are not avoiding responsibility.
- Bu tavşan insanlardan kaçar.This rabbit runs away from people.
- Yarın şehrin gürültüsünden kaçacağız.Tomorrow we will escape the noise of the city.
- Köpek neden benden kaçıyor?Why is the dog running away from me?
- Geç kaldık ve otobüsü kaçırdık.We were late and missed the bus.
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Watch out
For “we missed the bus”, say otobüsü kaçırdık. In kaçmak, the subject escapes; in this use of kaçırmak, the subject fails to catch something. Otobüsten kaçtık instead says that we ran away from the bus.
Try it yourself
Fill in the past form: the cat escaped yesterday.
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kaçtı
kaçtı: dün places the event yesterday. The cat is the third-person subject, so no person ending follows -tı; the voiceless ç requires t.
Complete with “from the garden”. Write the whole word.
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bahçeden
bahçeden: the garden is the starting point of the escape. Its last vowel is e, and the word ends in a vowel, giving -den rather than a locative ending.
Fill in the future form meaning “we will escape”.
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kaçacağız
kaçacağız: the future ending -acak meets the vowel-initial person ending -ız, so its k becomes ğ. The stem’s ç stays unchanged.
Choose the verb for missing a bus and put it in the past: “we missed”.
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kaçırdık
kaçırdık: being late caused us to miss the bus. The object otobüsü goes with kaçırmak here; -dı marks the past and final -k marks “we”.
Practice round
Answer questions, then rebuild Turkish sentences and words where available. We keep your score.
Fill in the past form: the cat escaped yesterday.
Complete with “from the garden”. Write the whole word.
Fill in the future form meaning “we will escape”.
Choose the verb for missing a bus and put it in the past: “we missed”.
Tap the words in the right order.
Tap the words in the right order.
Tap the words in the right order.
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Describe an animal escaping, something you avoid and a missed bus. Use a different tense in each sentence, then move on to yakalamak to describe catching.