Lesson 1 — Ne yapmalıyım? Must, need to, have to

1-⁠malı: “must” in one ending

Welcome back — and welcome to Course 2. In the first course you learnt almost all of Turkish’s groundwork: the tenses, the cases, a verb working as a noun. This one has more to read, longer texts and more grown-up conversations. And new people: an architecture office in İstanbul that restores old houses. It’s run by Zehra Hanım, and today is Kerem’s first day there. Ayşe and Can haven’t gone anywhere; they’ll drop by.

From now on the grammar comes whole — every form at once, with its Turkish name, and where people say it and where they write it. We’ll start with what you hear most on a new job: what you must do. English needs a separate word, “must”. Turkish makes do with an ending — -⁠malı, or -⁠meli after e, i, ö, ü, by the two teams, like Lesson 1’s -⁠lar / -⁠ler. You add it to the verb’s stem:

And who exactly must is told by the same person ending as Lesson 1’s öğretmenim: -⁠malı behaves like a noun. Before a vowel, a y steps in, as in hastayım:

Its name is gereklilik kipi, “the mood of necessity”. It sounds like a textbook, but what it means is what you yourself think is right: duty, advice, a rule. Bu kitabı okumalısın isn’t an order — it’s “trust me, read it”. That’s why -⁠malı is the favourite of people giving advice, doctors and senior colleagues.

2Mustn’t, and must I? -⁠mamalı and -⁠malı mı

The negative sits where it always sits — straight after the stem: gel-me-meli. Two mes in a row, each with its own job, as in Lesson 22’s gitmemem lazım: the first is “not”, the second is the start of “must”.

The question puts mı, written apart, before the person, as Lesson 5 did with -⁠yor: geliyor musun — gelmeli misin. It’s the most common question of anyone’s first day at work:

There’s a negative question too — gelmemeli miyim, “shouldn’t I come, then?” — but it’s rare and has a note of reproach. Ona söylememeli miyiz? — “maybe we shouldn’t tell him?”

And one form for writing. On signs, in rules and instructions the third person takes Lesson 23’s -⁠dır — the very one on shop doors: -⁠malıdır. And to talk about people in general, Turkish uses insan, “a person”:

3Olmalı and -⁠malıydı: “must be” and “should have”

-⁠malı has a second job, and English gives it the same word: “must”. “He must be home by now” isn’t a duty, it’s a guess. Turkish works the same way, most often with olmak:

And to say something should have been done — and wasn’t — add -⁠(y)dı, Lesson 13’s past for nouns: -⁠malı is one, after all. What you get is regret, or reproach:

4Gerek and lazım in every tense

In Lesson 22 you learnt to say “need to” without an ending: Erken kalkmak lazım — everyone needs to, Erken kalkmam lazım — I need to, and Gelmene gerek yok — you don’t need to. All of that stays. The difference from -⁠malı is small, but it’s there: -⁠malı is “it’s right, I’d advise it”, gerek and lazım are “the job needs it”. Erken kalkmalıyım — I’ve decided to; Erken kalkmam lazım — I’ve got a train.

What’s new today is tense. Lazım has no verb of its own, but gerek does, gerekmek, and it takes any tense. The person is still carried by -⁠ma with a possessive: gelmem, gelmen:

Gerekir is Lesson 21’s aorist, the tense of rules: this is how it always is. Lazım borrows its tenses from -⁠(y)dı and olmak: lazımdı, lazım olacak. “No need” with it is lazım değil, or, more often, gerek yok:

5Zorunda and mecbur: have to, forced to

-⁠malı is what you yourself think is right. When there’s no choice — a rule, the boss, the bus didn’t come — Turkish says zorunda. Inside it is zor, Lesson 21’s “hard”, and TDK’s dictionary gives it a sense of “compulsion” too. Gitmek zorunda is “in the compulsion of going”. The person follows it, as after any noun:

Now the lesson’s main trap — and English has it too. Gitmemelisin is “you mustn’t go”. Gitmek zorunda değilsin is “you don’t have to go”: go if you like. English keeps them apart as “mustn’t” and “don’t have to”, and learners still swap them; Turkish never does:

The past comes in two kinds. Zorundaydım is “I had to” — that was the rule. Zorunda kaldım is “I ended up having to” — that’s how things turned out; kalmak here is “to end up”:

Mecbur means the same, only the word is Arabic, and the action before it goes into the dative, as before Lesson 22’s başlamak: gitmeye mecburum. TDK’s example is … atmaya mecburuz, “we are bound to…”. It’s good in short answers too: Mecbur değilsin, “you don’t have to”, and Mecburen, “because I have to, nothing for it”.

And one last form, for reading rather than talking. Laws, contracts and notices write -⁠mak mecburiyetindedir — mecburiyet, “obligation”, with a possessive and the locative. Recognise it; don’t say it over tea:

6Which one: -⁠malı, gerek or zorunda

One Saturday, said three ways. Listen for who’s deciding:

And three “no”s that mean three different things. Learn them against one picture: a cup of coffee on the table.

When in doubt: -⁠malı for advice, gerek for what the job needs, zorunda for a rule. Get it wrong and you’ll still be understood — in everyday talk the lines between them blur. The one line that never blurs is between “mustn’t” and “don’t have to”.

8Dialogue: first day at the office

Eight in the morning at the office. Kerem is the first one in — nearly. Defne’s already here, and Zehra Hanım is on her way. Listen to how many times one morning can say “must” — and in how many ways.

Count the “musts”: takmalısın and kalmamalısın are rules Defne thinks are right; zorunda değilsin is freedom; zorundayız and zorundasınız are things out of their hands; gerekiyor, gerek, lazım and gerekecek are what the job needs. Notice the politeness too? Kerem and Defne say sen to each other, Zehra Hanım says siz to him, and at the end even Defne becomes Defne Hanım — the boss is not pleased. Tescilli is “listed”, from tescil and Lesson 12’s -⁠li; a kurul is a board — here the conservation board, without whose say nobody touches an old house.

9Reading

A week after Kerem’s first day, a magazine interviewed Zehra Hanım. The magazine’s questions are the lines without a dash, her answers the ones with. Read it as you would a paper: the whole thing first, and open a translation only where you’re stuck.

Kalem işi is literally “pen work”: hand painting on plaster or wood, the kind old houses often had on their ceilings. Sıva is plaster, yıkmak to pull down, yerine “in its place” — yer with a possessive and the dative, like Lesson 9’s masanın altına. And did you notice the owner go from yıkmak istiyorum to yıkmamalıyız? At the start it’s what he wants; at the end, it’s his duty. And it’s “we”: the house has become his business too.

10The lesson’s new words

These are the words the lesson brought in for the first time. The -⁠malı forms aren’t here — they’re in the first sections; gerek, lazım, kural, toplantı, işçi and kalfa you know from Course 1.

This lesson’s words as flashcards →

11Say it yourself

Out loud first, then the answer. Half of these are the lesson’s main trap: “mustn’t” or “don’t have to”. Missing here does you more good than guessing right — that’s how it sticks.

12Check yourself

Six items. A miss shows you the right answer straight away, and why.

13Homework

From now on the homework includes writing: short texts in your own words. Write them by hand or in your phone’s notes, then read them aloud — the ear finds the mistakes the eye let through.