Simple past tense -DI and -DU explained

Simple past tense -DI and -DU (Belirtili Geçmiş Zaman)

Simple past tense in Turkish is actually very simple :).

The suffix that is used in the past tense of nouns, verbs or an adjectives is -DI or -DU.

Don’t be overwhelmed by this formula. The image below explains it all.

📝 The ‘d’ becomes → ‘t’ when the last letter is one of the f-s-t-k-ç-ş-h-p.

1. Verbs

Turkish Verb	English Verb	Past Tense (3rd Person Singular)	English
Gelmek	To come	Geldi	came
Gitmek	To go	Gitti	went
Zıplamak	To jump	Zıpladı	jumped
Yapmak	To do	Yaptı	did
Uyumak	To sleep	Uyudu	slept
Gülmek	To laugh	Güldü	laughed

2. Adjectives

Turkish Adjective	English Adjective	Past Tense (3rd Person Singular)	English
Büyük	Big	Büyüktü	It was big
Küçük	Small	Küçüktü	It was small
Yeni	New	Yeniydi	It was new
Eski	Old	Eskiydi	It was old
Güzel	Beautiful	Güzeldi	It was beautiful
İyi	Good	İyiydi	It was good

🟦 - last letter of word
🟧 - separator 'y' between two vowels (only in noun and adjective), not in verbs ❌.
🟥 - past tense suffix

3. Nouns

Turkish Noun	English Noun	Past Tense (3rd Person Singular)	English Translation
Masa	Table	…güzel masaydı.	It was beautiful table
Resim	Picture	…büyük resimdi.	It was big picture
Arkadaş	Friend	…samimi arkadaştı.	He/she was sincere friend
Şehir	City	…büyük şehirdi.	It was big city
Yemek	Food	…lezzetli yemekti.	It was delicious food
Müzik	Music	...harika müzikti.	It was great music

♟️ If the last letter of the word a noun or an adjective is a vowel, ‘y’ comes in between as a separator.

♟️ There is also a non suffix way of expressing past tense by using the word idi after a noun and adjective.

♟️ Example would be güzeldi → güzel idi, durusttu → durust idi.
- In this case no need to consider vowel harmony or f-s-t-k-ç-ş-h-p rules, just add idi to any noun or adjective.

♟️ There is no irregularity when it comes to past tense of a verb in Turkish. The suffix rules apply the same to all verbs. It is consistent.

Thanks for reading!

Written by

Abbas Abdelila

@abbasabdelila