Present, past, and future *

Abstract

Turkish has a multifaceted verbal system which can be understood only if studied from within: it has two past- and three present-tense forms and one future tense. Although the notion of tense is used here, it should be taken with a grain of salt, for many verb forms are opposed along the lines of future versus non-future, completed versus ongoing action, or with or without temporal reference. Thus, Present-1 is typical for a non-completed action, Future for actions not yet begun, Past-1 denotes completed actions not witnessed by the speaker, whereas using Past-2 makes the speaker witness. Present-2 is a non-tense, since it does not relate to any moment in time, and Present-3 is used in formal speech. The place of the infinitive among tense forms is discussed and the final section goes into matters of meaning and interpretation.