Lesson 33: Past continuous tense - affirmative, negative, interrogative forms.Conversation:Nejat travels to Ankara

In this lesson we will focus on the Past Continuous tense in Turkish, how to build it and its use.


In the conversation, the speaker talks aout his friend Nejat who had gone to Ankara.
Pin your attention on the verbs in Past Continuous Tense (in red). You will also practice with new words and expressions as well as review what you have been studying so far.

" Dün akşam Nejat telefon etti. Ankara'ya gidiyormuş.
Niçin?
Sen duymadın mı?
Neyi?
Dün bir telegram almış. Babası ağır hastaymış.
Şimdi anladım.Demin yolda gördüm. Acele acele gidiyordu.
Bir şey söyledi mi?
Hayır yalnız selam verdi. Ne zaman ankara'ya hareket ediyormuş?
Derhal hareket etmiş."

VOCABULARI/SÖZLÜK

Duymak (also işitmek):  To hear
Niçin:   Why?(in questions)
Neyi?:   What
Gidiyormuş: He is reportedly going....(this is a case of REPORTED PAST)
Gidiyordu: Was going
Demin: A short while ago
Derhal: Right away, straight away
Hareket etmek: To go,to leave, to be on the move




                                                       GRAMMATICAL NOTES

Before we start analizing the Past continuous tense let's have a look at  Lesson 19 for a moment.
Do you remember the present continuous tense? Well, we have to use this tense as the base to build the Past Continuous Tense and its forms as the rules stay the same.
The past continuous tense is part of the Turkish  "Şimdiki zaman" and describes an action which was taking place in a specific lapse of time in the past.
The contruction of this tense is indeed quite simple and requires the simple attachment to the Present continuous tense conjugation of the following personal  past suffixes:

-DUM   -DUN    -DU    -DUK    -DUNUZ   -DULAR  or  -LARDI 

It's of some importance remark here that suffixes here do not obey to the vowel harmony rule and are unique regardless the suffixes used to form the Present continuous tense from which this tense stems.

A few examples will help better understand this rule:

AFFIRMATIVE FORM

I was going:    Gidiyordum      Gid (infinitive base)  + iyor (present continuos suffix) + dum (personal suffix in past tense)

More examples:

I was reading the newspaper:   Gazeteyi okuyordum

We were crossing the bridge:  Köprüden  geçiyorduk

They were watching tv:           Tv'yi  seyrediyorlardı.

Quite easy isn't it?


NEGATIVE FORM

The negative form obeys to the same rules of the Present continuos tense as illustrated in Lesson 19
We will only ned to attach a "m" right after the infinitive base and the negative sentence is done.
Here the are a few examples:

I wasn't going to school:   Okula gitmiyordum

You weren't doing your homeworks:  ödevinizi  yapmıyordunuz.



INTERROGATIVE FORM and INTERROGATIVE-NEGATIVE FORM

Again look at  Lesson 19  for the contruction of these forms.
Here there are a few examples of interrogative and inerrogative-negative form of Pas continuous:

Were you going to school? : Okula gidiyor muydun?

Were we playing football?   Top oynuyor muyduk?

Weren't you talk to the manager? : Sefle/müdürle konusmuyor muydunuz?