Kerem, are you checking your e-mail again?
1keşke: “if only” in one ending
You’ve heard -sa before: in Course 1’s Lesson 26, Efe planted a biscuit in a flowerpot saying Ya tutarsa!, “what if it works!” There it meant “if”, and that’s its job in this course’s Lesson 8. Today it has a nicer one: dreaming out loud.
Turkish calls it the dilek-şart kipi, the “wish-and-condition mood”. It sounds grand, but it’s simple. Add -sa or -se to the stem — the last vowel picks which, as with -lar / -ler — then the same endings as Course 1 Lesson 13’s -dı: geldim, gelsem. In front of it there’s usually keşke, “if only”:
gelsem, gelsen, gelse, gelsek, gelseniz, gelseler— if only I, you, he (she), we, you, they came
baksam, baksan, baksa, baksak, baksanız, baksalar— if only I, you, he (she), we, you, they looked
Wishes come big and very small:
Keşke dünyayı gezsem!— If only I could travel the world!
Keşke piyango bana çıksa!— If only I won the lottery!
Keşke Türkçeyi su gibi konuşsam.— If only my Turkish flowed like water.
Keşke bugün cuma olsa!— If only it were Friday today!
In a wish, var steps aside for olmak: “I’ve got a garden” is bir bahçem var, and “if only I had a garden” is keşke bir bahçem olsa. You’ll meet varsa too, but that one means “if there is”, and it’s for Lesson 8.
Keşke bir bahçem olsa!— If only I had a garden!
Keşke biraz daha zamanımız olsa.— If only we had a bit more time.
Instead of keşke you’ll often hear bir — “just once”, “if only it would just…”. It works for things you’re fed up with, too:
Bir tatile çıksak!— If we could just go on holiday!
Şu toplantı bir bitse!— If only this meeting would just end!
And said to someone else, -sa turns into a very gentle request, with no pressure at all:
Bana da bir kahve yapsan!— Fancy making me a coffee too?
2olmasa and acaba … mı?: “if only not”, and “maybe I should…?”
The negative is -ma before -sa: gelmesem, bakmasak. And yok becomes olmasa, just as var became olsa:
Keşke bu kadar yorgun olmasam.— If only I weren’t so tired.
Keşke telefonum bu kadar çok çalmasa!— If only my phone didn’t ring so much!
Keşke yarın toplantı olmasa.— If only there were no meeting tomorrow.
Now the question. mI goes after -sa and all its endings, as a word of its own, as with -dı: çıksam mı? It isn’t asking anyone else; it’s asking yourself: “maybe I should leave?”. Beside it there’s nearly always acaba, which TDK calls a word of “curiosity, indecision or doubt” — “I wonder”:
çıksam mı, çıksan mı, çıksa mı, çıksak mı, çıksanız mı, çıksalar mı— maybe I, you, he (she), we, you, they should leave?
Acaba bugün erken çıksam mı?— Maybe I should leave early today?
Acaba Zehra Hanım’a sorsak mı?— I wonder if we should ask Zehra Hanım?
And with the negative, “maybe I shouldn’t…?”:
Acaba bu akşam hiç çıkmasak mı?— Maybe we shouldn’t go out at all tonight?
acaba gets on with the other tenses too — wherever you’re wondering:
Acaba kurul ne diyecek?— I wonder what the board will say?
3Açayım mı? or açsam mı? Who you’re asking
Course 1’s Lesson 10 had a question that looks similar: Çay yapayım mı?, “shall I make some tea?”. The difference is who you’re asking. -ayım mı? asks someone else: you’re offering, or asking leave, and you want an answer. -sam mı? asks yourself: you’re unsure, thinking out loud.
Pencereyi açayım mı?— Shall I open the window? (asking you)
Acaba pencereyi açsam mı?— Maybe I should open the window? (thinking aloud)
Yarın gelelim mi?— Shall we come tomorrow? (asking you)
Acaba yarın gelsek mi?— Maybe we should come tomorrow? (we’re not sure)
So -ayım mı? gets an answer, Olur or Yok, sağ ol, while -sam mı? doesn’t need one. Though a friend will always chip in.
4Keşke gelseydin: “I wish you had…”
And when the wish comes too late? Then -sa takes -ydı, the same past that went after a noun in Course 1’s Lesson 13: evdeydim. You get gelseydim, “if only I had come” — and you didn’t. In English that’s “I wish I had…”.
gelseydim, gelseydin, gelseydi, gelseydik, gelseydiniz, gelselerdi— if only I, you, he (she), we, you, they had come
For “they” it’s gelselerdi: the -ler comes before the -di.
Keşke dün akşam sen de maça gelseydin!— I wish you’d come to the match last night too!
Keşke şemsiyemi alsaydım.— I wish I’d brought my umbrella.
With -ma it’s regret for something done:
Keşke o kadar çok yemeseydim!— I wish I hadn’t eaten so much!
Keşke o evi satmasaydık.— If only we hadn’t sold that house.
With olmak, -saydı can be about now as well — about what certainly won’t happen: keşke burada olsaydın is more hopeless than keşke burada olsan.
Keşke burada olsaydın.— I wish you were here.
Now a neighbour from this course’s Lesson 1: -malıydı, “should have”. Both look back, but -malıydı is a verdict, a lesson learned, and keşke … -saydı is a feeling. People often say them one after the other:
Şemsiye almalıydım. Keşke alsaydım!— I should have taken an umbrella. If only I had!
And regret itself is pişman, “sorry for what you did”:
Bu işe pişman mısın? — Hayır, hiç pişman değilim.— Do you regret taking this job? — No, not one bit.
5Gelse miydim?: “maybe I should have…?”
The last form is for going over what’s already done. mI comes after -sa, and -ydı with the ending moves onto it: gelse miydim?, “maybe I should have come?”.
gelse miydim, gelse miydin, gelse miydi, gelse miydik, gelse miydiniz, gelseler miydi— maybe I, you, he (she), we, you, they should have come?
Acaba o işi kabul etse miydim?— I wonder if I should have taken that job?
Kurulda daha az konuşsa mıydım?— Maybe I should have said less at the board?
Ona hiç söylemese miydik?— Maybe we shouldn’t have told him at all?
All four side by side — read them out loud, and you’ll hear the difference:
Keşke gelsen. — Keşke gelseydin.— If only you’d come. — I wish you had come.
Gelsem mi? — Gelse miydim?— Maybe I should come? — Maybe I should have come?
6Türkiye up close: Hıdırellez, a night for wishes
In Course 1’s Lesson 18 you made a wish over a coffee cup, dilek tutmak. One wish, one cup. But once a year Türkiye has a whole night when everybody makes them.
It’s Hıdırellez, on 6 May. TDK’s dictionary calls it the day when, so it’s believed, Hızır and İlyas meet each year — which is where the name comes from: Hıdır and İlyas in one word. They’re held to be the guardians of earth and water, and the day is Spring Day, nature waking up.
It’s kept on the night of 5 to 6 May. You write your wish on a slip of paper and leave it under a rose bush, or tie it to a branch. Or draw it: if you want a house, you draw one, or lay one out in pebbles at the roots. In the morning the wishes go into water — the sea, a river. And that night there are bonfires, and people jump over the flames.
In 2017 UNESCO put Hıdırellez on its list of the intangible heritage of humanity, as a joint entry from Türkiye and North Macedonia. And what to write on your slip of paper, you now know: Keşke…
7Dialogue: keşke, office style
A week has gone by since the board in Lesson 3. The decision on the garden window was promised “officially next week” — and here it is. The fifth of May, the office. Kerem won’t leave his inbox alone.
Defne:
Kerem, yine mi e-postalara bakıyorsun?
Kerem:
Bugün beşinci kere. Keşke kurul bugün yazsa!
For the fifth time today. If only the board would write today!
Defne:
Kurul “gelecek hafta” dedi. Hafta henüz bitmedi.
The board said “next week”. The week isn’t over yet.
Kerem:
Biliyorum. Acaba kurulu arasam mı?
I know. Maybe I should ring the board?
Defne:
Cık! Arama. Bekle.
Cık! Don’t ring. Wait.
Kerem:
Keşke o gün çizimi daha iyi anlatsaydım.
I wish I’d explained the drawing better that day.
Defne:
İyi anlattın. Başkan Hanım sonunda gülümsedi, unuttun mu?
You explained it well. The chair smiled at the end, remember?
Kerem:
Ama yirmi dakika konuştum. Acaba daha az konuşsa mıydım?
But I talked for twenty minutes. Maybe I should have said less?
Defne:
Cık! Sorun konuşmak değil, beklemek. Gel, biraz hayal kuralım. Ben başlıyorum: keşke şu anda bir adada olsam.
Cık! The problem isn’t the talking, it’s the waiting. Come on, let’s dream a little. I’ll start: if only I were on an island right now.
Kerem:
Hangi adada?
Which island?
Defne:
Bilmem. Deniz olsa, güneş olsa, telefon olmasa…
Don’t know. The sea, the sun, and no phone…
Kerem:
Telefon olmasa mı? Sen telefonsuz bir saat bile yaşayamazsın!
No phone? You can’t last an hour without your phone!
Defne:
Haklısın. Ama hayal bu! Şimdi sen.
True. But it’s a dream! Your turn.
Kerem:
Benim hayalim küçük: keşke bu akşam penaltıyı anlasam. Orhan Bey üç kere anlattı, ben hâlâ anlamadım.
My dream’s a small one: if only I could understand the penalty tonight. Orhan Bey has explained it three times, and I still don’t get it.
Zehra:
Ne konuşuyorsunuz bakalım?
And what are you two talking about?
Defne:
Hayal kuruyoruz, Zehra Hanım. Kerem de kurulu bekliyor.
We’re dreaming, Zehra Hanım. And Kerem’s waiting for the board.
Zehra:
Bugün 5 Mayıs, biliyor musunuz? Bu gece Hıdırellez.
Do you know it’s the fifth of May today? Tonight is Hıdırellez.
Kerem:
Hıdırellez mi? O ne?
Hıdırellez? What’s that?
Zehra:
Bir bahar bayramı. Bu gece insanlar dileklerini yazıp bir gül ağacına bağlar.
A spring festival. Tonight people write down their wishes and tie them to a rose bush.
Defne:
Annem her yıl yapar. Bir yıl ev istedi ve gül ağacının altına küçük bir ev çizdi.
My mum does it every year. One year she wanted a house, and she drew a little one under the rose bush.
Kerem:
Ev geldi mi?
And did the house come?
Defne:
Geldi. Ama on yıl sonra!
It did. Ten years later!
Zehra:
Orhan Bey’in bahçesinde eski bir gül ağacı var. Acaba onu arasak mı? Bir dilek de o yazsın.
There’s an old rose bush in Orhan Bey’s garden. Maybe we should ring him? Let him write a wish too.
Kerem:
Arayalım! Ben de bir dilek yazsam mı?
Let’s ring him! Maybe I should write a wish too?
Zehra:
Yazın, Kerem Bey. Ama unutmayın: dilekler “keşke” ile başlar, çalışarak gerçekleşir.
Write one, Kerem Bey. But remember: wishes start with “if only”, and come true by working.
Count them: yazsa, olsam, olsa, olmasa, anlasam are wishes; arasam mı, arasak mı, yazsam mı are doubts; anlatsaydım is a regret; konuşsa mıydım a “maybe I should have”. Defne’s Cık! is Lesson 3’s eyebrow “no”, and Kerem gets it now. And Zehra Hanım’s çalışarak is Lesson 3’s too: “how” wishes come true.
8Reading
The next day, Orhan Bey’s garden made the neighbourhood news. It’s a news piece: what happened, who said what. Read it through; open a translation only where you’re stuck. What Orhan Bey, Kerem and the neighbour say are the lines with a dash.
Gül ağacındaki dilek
Neighbourhood news: Orhan Bey, an old rose and one “if only”.
Dün gece Hıdırellez’di.
Last night was Hıdırellez.
Üsküdar’da da çok bahçede ateş yaktılar ve gül ağaçlarına dilek bağladılar.
In Üsküdar too, people lit fires in many gardens and tied wishes to the rose bushes.
Gençler geç saate kadar ateşin üstünden atladı.
The young ones jumped over the fire till late.
Orhan Bey’in bahçesinde de çok eski bir gül ağacı var.
In Orhan Bey’s garden there’s a very old rose bush too.
Orhan Bey’in evi ahşap ve yüz elli yaşında.
Orhan Bey’s house is wooden, and a hundred and fifty years old.
Evine büyük bir pencere istiyor, ama pencere için kurulun izni gerekiyor.
He wants a big window in his house, but a window needs the board’s permission.
Dün akşam Orhan Bey dileğini yazıp gül ağacına bağladı:
Yesterday evening Orhan Bey wrote down his wish and tied it to the rose bush:
— Keşke kurul bu hafta “evet” dese! Babam bu pencereyi istedi, dedem de istedi.
“If only the board would say yes this week! My father wanted this window, and so did my grandfather.”
Komşu teyze de bir dilek yazdı:
The lady next door wrote a wish too:
— Keşke biraz yağmur yağsa. Bahçem çok kuru!
“If only we got a bit of rain. My garden’s so dry!”
Sabah erken Orhan Bey dilekleri ağaçtan aldı ve denize bıraktı.
Early in the morning Orhan Bey took the wishes off the bush and let them go into the sea.
Saat onda telefonu çaldı. Kerem Bey’di, Orhan Bey’in mimarı.
At ten his phone rang. It was Kerem Bey, Orhan Bey’s architect.
— Orhan Bey, kurul yazdı. Karar “evet”! Pencere bahçe tarafında olacak.
“Orhan Bey, the board has written. The decision is yes! The window will be on the garden side.”
Orhan Bey önce hiçbir şey söylemedi. Sonra gül ağacına baktı.
At first Orhan Bey said nothing at all. Then he looked at the rose bush.
— Keşke her dilek bu kadar çabuk gerçekleşse!
“If only every wish came true this fast!”
Ama öğleden sonra Orhan Bey biraz düşünceliydi.
But in the afternoon Orhan Bey was a little thoughtful.
— Acaba daha büyük bir şey istese miydim? Keşke “Takımım bu yıl şampiyon olsun” diye yazsaydım!
“Maybe I should have asked for something bigger? If only I’d written ‘Let my team be champions this year’!”
Komşu teyze çok mutluydu: öğleden sonra yağmur yağdı.
The lady next door was very happy: in the afternoon it rained.
— Benim dileğim de gerçekleşti! Keşke ben de bir pencere isteseydim!
“My wish came true too! I wish I’d asked for a window!”
Pencere bu yaz hazır olacak.
The window will be ready this summer.
— Gelecek Hıdırellez’de gül ağacına bu pencereden bakacağım.
“Next Hıdırellez I’ll be looking at the rose bush through this window.”
gençler are “the young”, from genç, “young”. ateş yakmak is “to light a fire”, atlamak “to jump”, bırakmak “to let go, to leave”. gerçekleşmek is “to come true”: gerçek, “real”, with Lesson 2’s “become” -leş. And look at olsun diye yazsaydım: Course 1’s olsun from Lesson 10, diye from Lesson 19 — and today’s -saydı.
1What did Orhan Bey write on his slip?
2Why was Orhan Bey thoughtful in the afternoon?
3Did the neighbour’s wish come true?
9The lesson’s new words
These are the words the lesson brought in for the first time. The -sa forms of verbs you already know aren’t here; keşke and acaba, which they can’t do without, are.
New words
- keşkeif only
- piyangolottery
- acabaI wonder
- pişmansorry (for what one did), regretful
- hayaldream (a wish)
- hayal kurmakto daydream
- HıdırellezHıdırellez, the spring festival (6 May)
- gülrose
- bağlamakto tie
- çizmekto draw
- gerçekleşmekto come true
- ateş yakmakto light a fire
- gençyoung
- atlamakto jump
- kurudry
- bırakmakto let go, to leave
- şampiyonchampion
10Say it yourself
Out loud first, then the answer. Each one needs one of the lesson’s four forms. Getting it wrong and then checking is exactly what this is for.
if only it were summer now
Keşke şimdi yaz olsa.
if only I had a garden
Keşke bir bahçem olsa.
maybe I should go home early today?
Acaba bugün eve erken gitsem mi?
I wish I’d brought an umbrella
Keşke şemsiye alsaydım.
I wish I hadn’t said that
Keşke bunu söylemeseydim.
maybe we should have waited?
Acaba beklese miydik?
11Check yourself
Six items. A miss shows you the right answer straight away, and why.
1Match each picture to its word.
2Fill in the right word: “If only I had a garden!”
Keşke bir bahçem ?!
3Keşke şemsiye alsaydım means…
4Fill in the right form: “If only you’d come tomorrow too!”
Keşke yarın sen de ?!
5Kerem is unsure and thinking out loud, not asking anyone. What does he say?
6Kurulda daha az konuşsa mıydım? means…
12Homework
Two to say aloud, three to write. Write by hand or in your phone’s notes, then read it aloud: the ear finds what the eye let through.
- Say gitmek and okumak out loud in all four forms, every person: gitsem … gitseler, gitseydim … gitselerdi, gitsem mi …, gitse miydim … Then the same in the negative.
- Say each pair and hear who you’re asking: Kapıyı kapatayım mı? — Acaba kapıyı kapatsam mı?; Kahve yapayım mı? — Acaba bir kahve daha içsem mi?
- Your Hıdırellez slip: three wishes, a big one, a small one and a silly one. One with bir, one with -masa (Keşke … olmasa).
- A letter to yourself ten years ago, five or six sentences: what you regret (Keşke … -saydın, -masaydın), what you should have done (-malıydın) — and one thing you don’t regret at all: Hiç pişman değilim.
- A decision you’re mulling over right now — a move, a job, a holiday. Write three questions to yourself with acaba … -sam mı?, and your answer.