Yakalamak means to catch. You can catch a ball, make it onto a departing bus or seize an opportunity. Use the table to move between an action in progress, a completed event, a plan and a habit.
The idea
The stem is yakala-: yakalıyorum has a dotless ı where the final a narrows, while yakaladım keeps the a. The future is yakalayacağım, with linking y and ğ before the personal ending; the aorist is yakalarım. A specific object takes the accusative: topu yakalamak. The figurative fırsat yakalamak means to seize an opportunity.
| Person | Present continuous | Past | Future | Aorist |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ben | yakalıyorum | yakaladım | yakalayacağım | yakalarım |
| sen | yakalıyorsun | yakaladın | yakalayacaksın | yakalarsın |
| o | yakalıyor | yakaladı | yakalayacak | yakalar |
| biz | yakalıyoruz | yakaladık | yakalayacağız | yakalarız |
| siz | yakalıyorsunuz | yakaladınız | yakalayacaksınız | yakalarsınız |
| onlar | yakalıyorlar | yakaladılar | yakalayacaklar | yakalarlar |
Examples
- Çocuk havada topu yakaladı.The child caught the ball in mid-air.
- Biz son otobüsü yakaladık.We caught the last bus.
- Kedi sonunda fareyi yakaladı.The cat finally caught the mouse.
- Bu oyunda topları tek elle yakalıyorum.In this game, I am catching the balls with one hand.
- Bir gün iyi bir fırsat yakalayacağız.One day we will seize a good opportunity.
- Bu kez topu yakalamadım.This time I did not catch the ball.
- Sen de topu yakaladın mı?Did you catch the ball too?
- Her sabah aynı otobüsü yakalarız.We catch the same bus every morning.
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Watch out
Both otobüsü yakalamak and otobüse yetişmek can mean to catch the bus, but their noun endings differ. With yakalamak, the bus is a direct object; do not carry over the dative from yetişmek. The question particle stays separate: yakaladın mı?
Try it yourself
Complete in the present continuous: I am catching the balls right now.
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yakalıyorum
yakalıyorum: şu anda asks for an action in progress and ben for the first person. The dotless ı preserves the back-vowel pattern.
Complete in the future: We will catch the early bus tomorrow.
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yakalayacağız
yakalayacağız: yarın places the plan in the future and biz requires the plural ending. The future suffix has ğ before -ız.
Add the case ending: We caught the last bus.
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otobüsü
otobüsü: this is the particular last bus, so it is a definite direct object. Its final ü selects the accusative -ü; otobüse would fit yetişmek.
Complete in the negative past: I did not catch the ball yesterday.
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yakalamadım
yakalamadım: the speaker says the catch did not happen yesterday. The negative -ma- comes before past -dı- and first-person -m.
Practice round
Answer questions, then rebuild Turkish sentences and words where available. We keep your score.
Complete in the present continuous: I am catching the balls right now.
Complete in the future: We will catch the early bus tomorrow.
Add the case ending: We caught the last bus.
Complete in the negative past: I did not catch the ball yesterday.
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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Write a sentence about a ball you caught, one about catching a bus tomorrow and one about an opportunity. Then turn the first sentence into a negative.