Lesson 43 :The adverbial clause of time -İKEN (while). Conversation: New Year's Eve - Yılbaşı

The lesson will focus on one of Adverbial clause of time -İKEN.
This clause in general expresses the duration of the main action, equivalent at the adverb "while".

In the grammar notes a better and more detailed explanation will be provided.

In the conversation Nurdan tells Ayşe how she spent the New Year's Eve.

Pay attention to the İKEN forms (in red) and familiarize with new words and expressions.

" Alo! Ayşe nasılsın? İyi misin? Yılbaşı gecesini nasıl geçirdiniz?
Çok iyi geçirdik,Nurdan. Televizyonda çok güzel bir eğlence programı vardı. Annem ve ben televizyon seyrederken babamla kardeşim kağıt oynuyorlardı.Akşam üzeri alışverişe giderken yolda seni gördüm ama sen beni görmedin. Acele acele gidiyordun. Önemli bir şey mi vardı?
Hayır,önemli bir şey yoktu.Hava soğuktu. Okuldan gelirken çok üşümüstüm.Zaten okuldayken de çok soğuktu.
Biliyorsun bu günlerde yakıt yok.
Bizde de yakıt yoktu ama babam sabahleyin işe giderken yolda bir tanker görüp eve yollamış.Tam beş ton aldık. Şimdi evimiz sıcak.
Öyleyse ben de size geliyorum.
Çabuk gel, bekliyorum!"




VOCABULARY/SÖZLÜK

Geçirmek: To spend (time)
Kağıt: Cards - carte
Kağıt oynamak: To play cards
Yakıt: Fuel
Yollamak: To send
Çabuk: Quick, harry up!




                                                  GRAMMATICAL NOTES

The Adverbial clause suffix -İKEN in Turkish is used to express " While". -İKEN can stand alone or be suffixed as -KEN(when added to consonants) or - (Y)KEN(when added to vowels). It is invariable and does not follow the rules of vowel harmony. It does not take further suffixes. -İKEN is used when the verb action is continuous at a point in time. It may also follow an adjective.
Let's see the different field of application of this clause.

İken - with the Present Tenses

 

-İKEN is always suffixed to the verb. As the subject is not always evident, then it is normally stated as in the examples below.

Present Continuous tense (Şimdiki Zaman): -  yürümek

Ali kasabaya yürüyorken onu gördüm - I saw Ali while (he was) walking to town
Sen kasabaya yürüyorken, seni gördüm- I saw you while (you were) walking to town
Ben kasabaya yürüyorken, seni gördüm- I saw you while (I was) walking to town
Biz kasabaya yürüyorken, onu gördük- We saw him while we were walking to town
Biz kasabaya yürürken, onu her gün görürüz- Every day we see him when (while) we walk to town.
 

Simple present habitual (Geniş Zaman) -  dans etmek



Onlar dans ederken, dinlenelim- Let's rest while they dance

In the first three examples above it can be seen that the Personal Subject Pronouns have to be used to point to the subject, as -İKENcan not be suffixed to pronouns. The last three examples show a slight difference in meaning due to the differing use in the Wide Tense and Present Continuous Tenses.

İken - with Adjectives

 

-İKEN can be used with adjectives, in this case it can stand alone or be used as a suffix:
Ben, hasta iken (hastayken), uyurum - I sleep while (when) I am ill
Biz, o hastayken, merak ettik - While he was ill, we worried
Onlar, siz uykuda iken, meşgul olacaklar - They will be busy while you are asleep.

İken - with the Past Tenses

If the action is continuous in the past then  -İKEN can be translated into English: - As -were -ing
As I was going downtown I saw him.

Past Definite Tense:

Ben İngiltere'deyken, yağmur yağdı - While I was in England, it rained
Past Continuous Tense:

Biz İngiltere'ye giderken, yağmur yağıyordu. - As we were going to England it was raining.

İken - with Past Participle in -miş

This construction produces -MİŞKEN - means - having done
yapmışken - having done
yapılmışken - having been done
Bu iş bitirilmişken, eve gidelim - This job having been finished, lets go home..
Aklıma gelmişken, söyleyeyim - Having come to (my) mind, let me tell you..
Hazır gelmişken bir kahveni içelim - Having already come, let us drink a coffee of yours.

İken - with Negative Wide Tense

-mezken, -mazken means though not or while it isn't (This is a kind of official language. You can only hear these sentences in news or commercials.) 

Example:

Galatasaray'ın yıldız futbolcularından Necati Ates, kendilerine ödeme yapılamazken, bazı yabancı oyuncuların alacaklarının verildiğini duymanın üzüntü verici olduğunu söyledi.

The cases we have just analyzed represent the main applications of this important adverbial time clause.