konuşmak: to speak and to talk with someone

The idea

Konuşmak means to speak and to talk. The stem konuş- ends in the voiceless ş and has the back vowel u, so the present is -uyor (konuşuyorum), the past is -tu (konuştum, not konuşdum) and the future is -acak, whose k turns into ğ before a vowel: konuşacak, konuşacağım. The negative is konuşmuyorum and konuşmadım. The person you talk with takes ile, written apart or joined as -le/-la: Ali ile konuşuyorum, benimle konuşuyor.

Examples

• Ben Ali ile konuşuyorum.I am talking with Ali.The person you talk with is marked by ile, written apart, and not by an object ending. The pronoun ben may be dropped: Ali ile konuşuyorum.
• Annem benimle konuştu.My mother talked with me.With pronouns ile fuses and changes the stem: ben becomes benimle, sen becomes seninle, o becomes onunla. The past of konuşmak is konuştu, with t, because the stem ends in the voiceless ş.
• Siz Türkçe konuşuyor musunuz?Do you speak Turkish?A language name stands bare after the subject: Türkçe konuşmak, with no case ending. The question particle mi is written apart and takes the person ending: konuşuyor musunuz.
• Yarın Ali'yle konuşacağım.Tomorrow I will talk with Ali.Joined to a name that ends in a vowel, ile becomes -yle, after an apostrophe: Ali'yle. The k of the future -acak turns into ğ before the vowel of -ım: konuşacak, but konuşacağım.
• Dün gece uzun uzun konuştuk.We talked for a long time last night.The ending -k already says biz (we), so the pronoun is dropped. The doubled uzun uzun means at length, for a long while.
• konuşuyorumI am speakingkonuş·uyor-iyor / -ıyor / -uyor / -üyor: happening now·um-im / -sin / -iz / -siniz: I am, you are, we are
• konuşacağızwe will talkkonuş·acağ-ecek / -acak: will, going to·ız-im / -sin / -iz / -siniz: I am, you are, we are
• konuşmadıkwe did not talkkonuş·madı-medi / -madı: the negative past·kPast person endings: -m, -n, -k, -niz, -ler

Watch out

Do not mark the person with an object ending the way your language may mark "talk to": Ali ile konuşuyorum, not Ali'yi konuşuyorum. A language name also stays bare: Türkçe konuşuyorum.

Try it yourself

1. Put konuşmak (to talk) into the past: You talked a lot in the meeting yesterday.

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   konuştunuz

   konuştunuz: the stem ends in the voiceless ş, so the past starts with t; the vowel u gives -tu, and -nuz marks siz.

2. Put konuşmak (to talk) into the future for ben: Tomorrow I will talk with Ali.

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   konuşacağım

   konuşacağım: the vowel u gives -acak, and its k softens to ğ because the ending -ım starts with a vowel.

3. Add the word for "with": I am talking with the neighbour.

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   komşuyla / komşu ile

   komşuyla or komşu ile: komşu ends in the back vowel u, so the joined form is -la, and a vowel before it asks for the buffer y.

4. Put konuşmak (to talk) into the negative present: You don't talk on the phone at all.

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   konuşmuyorsun

   konuşmuyorsun: the negative sits between the stem and -yor and follows the vowel u as -mu-; -sun marks sen.

Use it today

Write four sentences about whom you talk with: one present, one past, one future and one negative. Check the shape of ile in each.