The building manager said we have to write up a report.
1yapıyordum: what you were doing at the time
You’ve had the past since Course 1’s Lesson 13: yaptım, “I did it”, job done. But when you tell a story, half of it isn’t things done, it’s things going on: it was raining, someone was working, someone was on the phone. Turkish has a form for that, and there’s almost nothing new in it: Course 1 Lesson 4’s -yor, with its Lesson 13’s -du behind it:
Its Turkish name is şimdiki zamanın hikâyesi, literally “the story of the present tense”. It sounds grand and means something simple: the present, told about the past. Here it’s the past continuous. Vowel harmony has almost nothing to do: -yor never changes, and after its o the -du is always -du, whatever the verb. The vowel before -yor and any change to the stem stay as they are in the present: geliyordum, okuyordum, görüyordum, gidiyordum, bekliyordum. Here’s every person:
ben → yapıyordum— I → I was doing
sen → yapıyordun— you → you were doing
o → yapıyordu— he, she → he, she was doing
biz → yapıyorduk— we → we were doing
siz → yapıyordunuz— you (plural or polite) → you were doing
onlar → yapıyorlardı— they → they were doing
The endings are -dı’s short ones: -m, -n, -k, -nuz. Only “they” puts -lar before the -dı, like Lesson 8’s alırlardı. The negative works as it does in the present: -ma before -yor, its vowel adjusting: yapmıyordum, gelmiyordum.
yapmıyordum, yapmıyordun, yapmıyordu, yapmıyorduk, yapmıyordunuz, yapmıyorlardı— I wasn’t doing, you weren’t, he wasn’t, we weren’t, you weren’t, they weren’t
In a question mu comes after -yor, the -du sits on it with the buffer y, and the person goes at the very end. With “they” it’s mıydı after the -lar:
yapıyor muydum? yapıyor muydun? yapıyor muydu? yapıyor muyduk? yapıyor muydunuz? yapıyorlar mıydı?— was I doing? were you? was he? were we? were you? were they?
yapmıyor muydun?— weren’t you doing it?
Read these out loud:
Ne yapıyordun?— What were you doing?
Telefonla konuşuyordum.— I was on the phone.
Kar yağıyor muydu?— Was it snowing?
O sırada ofiste çalışmıyordum.— I wasn’t working at the office at the time.
Çizimi bitirmiyor muydun?— Weren’t you finishing the drawing?
One more, for English ears. “I was knowing” isn’t English, but Turkish has no such worry: biliyorum takes -yor in the present, so the past is biliyordum, plain “I knew”. “Lived” goes the same way:
Cevabı biliyordum.— I knew the answer.
Biz o sokakta oturuyorduk.— We lived on that street.
2yapıyordu and yaptı: the background and the event
If you speak English, you already know this pair: “was doing” and “did”. With -yordu something was going on; with -dı something happened. In a story the first paints the background and the second moves things along:
Kerem çizim yapıyordu. Telefon çaldı.— Kerem was drawing. The phone rang.
Kar yağıyordu, sokakta kimse yoktu. Birden bir ses duydum.— It was snowing and there was no one in the street. Suddenly I heard a voice.
One verb, both ways:
Dün çizimi yapıyordum.— Yesterday I was doing the drawing.
Dün çizimi yaptım.— Yesterday I did the drawing.
When you only mean you know a book, “I’ve read this book”, that’s plain -dı again: Bu kitabı okudum. Nothing was going on; it’s done. And with her akşam or her gün, -yordu tells you what kept happening back then:
O yıllarda her gün Üsküdar’a gidiyordum.— In those years I went to Üsküdar every day.
Lesson 8 gave you alacaktım, “I was going to take”. Put that form beside today’s and plain -dı, and you’ve got three moments at the same door:
Çıkacaktım.— I was going to go out.
Çıkıyordum.— I was on my way out.
Çıktım.— I went out.
And a job you wouldn’t guess: “nearly”. Put az kalsın in front and the verb in -yordu, and you get what almost happened and didn’t:
Az kalsın düşüyordum.— I nearly fell.
Az kalsın anahtarımı ofiste unutuyordum.— I nearly left my key at the office.
az daha is the same thing: TDK’s dictionary sends you from it to neredeyse, “almost”.
Az daha düşüyordu.— He nearly fell.
3çaldığında and çaldığı zaman: “when”
Lesson 7 had geldiğimden beri, “since I came”, and Lesson 12 had doğduğum ev, “the house I was born in”. Both are the same -dık, with a possessive ending on it. Put it in the locative and you get “when”: geldiğimde. Or add the word zaman: geldiğim zaman. In the examples here the two say the same thing.
The persons are the ones in geldiğimden beri, with the same -tık after a voiceless consonant: çıktığımda, gittiğim zaman.
ben → geldiğimde, geldiğim zaman— I → when I…
sen → geldiğinde, geldiğin zaman— you → when you…
o → geldiğinde, geldiği zaman— he, she → when he, she…
biz → geldiğimizde, geldiğimiz zaman— we → when we…
siz → geldiğinizde, geldiğiniz zaman— you (plural or polite) → when you…
onlar → geldiklerinde, geldikleri zaman— they → when they…
sen and o sound alike with -da, geldiğinde, and the words round it tell you who; with zaman they differ. The subject in these examples stays just as it is, Alarm çaldığında, Kerem geldiğinde, with none of the genitive -dığını asked for in Lesson 13.
Now the part that matters. In the examples here -dığında only looks past: the second verb has the tense, and that verb shows how the two things fit together. Second verb in -dı: it happened then:
Alarm çaldığında dışarı çıktık.— When the alarm went off, we went outside.
In -yordu: the first thing caught the second one already going on:
Alarm çaldığında telefonla konuşuyordum.— When the alarm went off, I was on the phone.
In the present or the aorist: it’s what happens every time:
Alarm çaldığında herkes dışarı çıkar.— When the alarm goes off, everyone goes outside.
In the future: it’s all still to come, the first thing and then the second:
Alarm çaldığında merdivenden ineceğiz.— When the alarm goes off, we’ll go down the stairs.
Don’t mix it up with Lesson 11’s -acağı zaman, where the thing is only about to happen. Sabiha Hanım’s bozacı called out when he was about to turn into the street:
Bozacı sokağa gireceği zaman bağırır.— When the bozacı’s about to turn into the street, he calls out.
Bozacı sokağa girdiği zaman bağırır.— The bozacı calls out when he turns into the street.
With her in front you get “every time”, which Lesson 8 said with ne zaman … -sa:
Her geldiğinde kahve makinesine bakar.— Every time he comes in, he looks at the coffee machine.
Ne zaman gelse, kahve makinesine bakar.— Whenever he comes in, he looks at the coffee machine.
4çalınca: “when”, with no person
Lesson 11 made a promise: -ınca without the -ya kadar is another form, with a meaning of its own; we’ll get to it. We’ve got to it. You almost know it: the same four ways as -ıncaya, and the buffer y after a vowel. In the examples here it’s one thing and then the next: “when”, “once”, “after”.
| Last vowel | After a consonant | After a vowel |
|---|---|---|
| a ı | al → alınca | anla → anlayınca |
| e i | gel → gelince | bekle → bekleyince |
| o u | dur → durunca | oku → okuyunca |
| ö ü | gör → görünce | yürü → yürüyünce |
-ınca has no person, any more than Lesson 5’s -ken: ben gelince, sen gelince, Kerem gelince, and the words round it say who. As in the last section, the second verb shows the tense:
Alarm çalınca dışarı çıktık.— When the alarm went off, we went outside.
Alarm çalınca herkes dışarı çıkar.— When the alarm goes off, everyone goes outside.
Alarm çalınca dışarı çıkacağız.— When the alarm goes off, we’ll go outside.
Zehra Hanım gelince toplantı başladı.— When Zehra Hanım came, the meeting started.
Kış olunca bozacı da gelir.— When winter comes, so does the bozacı.
The negative is -mayınca, -meyince, and here there’s a reason in it: this didn’t happen, so that did:
Kerem gelmeyince ona telefon ettim.— When Kerem didn’t come, I rang him.
And with the -ama of Course 1 Lesson 21’s gelemedim, “I couldn’t come”, you get -amayınca, -emeyince, “when I couldn’t”:
Cevap alamayınca yine sordum.— When I couldn’t get an answer, I asked again.
5çıktığım sırada: at that very moment
Lesson 11 had okuyacağım sırada, “at the moment I was about to read”. Swap -acak for -dık and the moment has come: okuduğum sırada, “at the moment I was reading”. The two things meet at one point, and that lesson’s tam pins it down:
Tam çıkacağım sırada telefon çaldı.— Just as I was about to go out, the phone rang.
Tam kapıdan çıktığım sırada telefon çaldı.— Just as I was going out of the door, the phone rang.
The persons are -dığı zaman’s:
çıktığım, çıktığın, çıktığı, çıktığımız, çıktığınız, çıktıkları sırada— as I, you, he, we, you, they went out
Two more, out loud:
Defne toplantıya girdiği sırada Kerem çıkıyordu.— As Defne was going into the meeting, Kerem was coming out.
Sen aradığın sırada yemek yiyordum.— When you rang, I was eating.
6duyar duymaz: the moment you hear
The fastest “when” in this lesson is made of two forms you’ve had since Course 1’s Lesson 21: the aorist and its negative. duyar, duymaz: “hears, doesn’t hear”. Word for word it’s nonsense; in practice it’s “the moment you hear”:
The stem comes twice: first with whatever aorist vowel the verb has, gelir, yapar, görür, then with -maz or -mez: gelir gelmez, yapar yapmaz, görür görmez. The words round it say who, and as everywhere today the last verb says when:
Alarmı duyar duymaz koştum.— The moment I heard the alarm, I ran.
Kerem ofise gelir gelmez kahve makinesine bakar.— The moment Kerem gets to the office, he looks at the coffee machine.
Eve gelir gelmez seni ararım.— I’ll ring you the moment I get home.
Toplantı biter bitmez çıkacağım.— I’m leaving the moment the meeting ends.
Put it beside -ınca and you’ll hear the difference in speed:
Kerem gelince başladık.— When Kerem came, we started.
Kerem gelir gelmez başladık.— We started the moment Kerem came.
The same pair lives on in a set phrase: ister istemez, “wants, doesn’t want”. TDK gives it as forced to, without meaning to; in English, “like it or not”. There’s no speed in this one:
Alarm çalınca ister istemez merdivenden indik.— When the alarm went off we went down the stairs, like it or not.
Makine boşsa, ister istemez sen dolduracaksın.— If the machine’s empty, you’ll be filling it, like it or not.
7Five “when”s side by side
With Lesson 5’s -ken, you’ve now got five ways to say “when”. It isn’t that one’s right and the rest are wrong: often two would do. But each has a character of its own. One phone, five times:
Kerem çizim yaparken telefon çaldı.— While Kerem was drawing, the phone rang.
Telefon çaldığında Kerem çizim yapıyordu.— When the phone rang, Kerem was drawing.
Tam kapıdan çıktığı sırada telefon çaldı.— Just as he was going out of the door, the phone rang.
Telefon çalınca Kerem kalktı.— When the phone rang, Kerem got up.
Telefon çalar çalmaz Kerem kalktı.— The moment the phone rang, Kerem got up.
In these examples the first thing is still going on with -ken. With -dığında and the second verb in -yordu, the phone catches Kerem in the middle of something. With -dığı sırada and tam, the two things meet at one moment. With -ınca it’s one thing after the other, and with -ır -maz there’s no gap at all. If you can’t pick straight away, that’s normal: the ear takes more than one evening to get used to these.
8Türkiye up close: Yangın var! Who watched over İstanbul
In Lesson 13’s legend the Galata Tower spent centuries writing letters and poems to the Maiden’s Tower. In real life it had a job: it watched the city for fire. yangın is a fire of the kind that does damage, and in the old İstanbul where, as its fire brigade puts it, wooden houses once reigned, Yangın var! was the cry nobody wanted to hear.
There were three towers: Beyazıt, Galata and İcadiye behind Vaniköy, on the Asian shore. The watchmen, the köşklü, lived on them: twenty at Beyazıt, eighteen at Galata, three at İcadiye. They slept up there, in rooms in the towers. Beyazıt stands 85 metres high, with the watch post fifty metres up.
Now the best part. İstanbul’s fire brigade tells of a tradition at the Beyazıt tower. The watchman who spotted a fire would say to his chief: Ağa! Bir çocuğun oldu, “Chief! You’ve had a child.” And the chief would ask: Kız mı, oğlan mı?, “A girl or a boy?” kız meant the Asian shore, Beyoğlu and the European shore of the Bosphorus; oğlan meant the old city inside the walls.
From there the news went through the air. By day baskets came down from the Beyazıt tower: sepet, Sabiha Hanım’s very word, only these carried news, not boza. Galata hung out flags, and at night they lit lanterns. When İcadiye saw them it fired a cannon, and all İstanbul knew. The baskets went on coming down until 1934.
Down below, the tulumbacı, each neighbourhood’s own firemen, were already running. The work was voluntary: the state gave them tax breaks, and a fire put out could bring tips. Four men carried the pump box on poles, so they called each other omuzdaş, from omuz, “shoulder”. At the cry of Yangın var! they threw off their outer clothes and ran barefoot. The neighbourhood tulumbacı were banned in August 1924.
In 1962, on a clear day, the fireman on watch at Beyazıt spotted a fire on the island of Büyükada and placed it right down to the street. The whole service is one long görür görmez: Köşklü dumanı görür görmez ağaya koşuyordu, “The moment he saw smoke, the watchman ran to his chief.” So when a basket comes down from a window in Üsküdar, you’ll know: in this city it didn’t always mean boza.
9Dialogue: who had the last coffee?
July, a Tuesday at the office, a month after the board’s yes. At ten this morning the fire alarm went off and everyone ran, Tolga Bey with the extinguisher. Now the building manager wants a tutanak, a signed account of what happened, and Zehra Hanım is taking statements.
Zehra:
Bina yöneticisi tutanak yazmamız gerektiğini söyledi.
Zehra:
Saat onda alarm çaldığında herkes ne yapıyordu? Defne Hanım, siz başlayın.
What was everyone doing when the alarm went off at ten? Defne Hanım, you start.
Defne:
Telefonla konuşuyordum. Alarmı duyar duymaz telefonu kapattım ve koştum.
I was on the phone. The moment I heard the alarm I hung up and ran.
Zehra:
Kerem Bey, siz?
Kerem Bey, you?
Kerem:
Cumbanın çizimini bitiriyordum. Alarm çalınca kalktım. Az kalsın çizimi masada bırakıyordum!
I was finishing the drawing of the cumba. When the alarm went off, I got up. I nearly left the drawing on the desk!
Zehra:
Tolga Bey?
Tolga Bey?
Tolga:
Merdivenden çıkıyordum, elimde çayım vardı. Alarmı duyunca söndürücüyü aldım.
I was coming up the stairs with my tea in my hand. When I heard the alarm, I took the extinguisher.
Zehra:
Çayınızı bıraktınız mı?
Did you put your tea down?
Tolga:
Hayır, Zehra Hanım. Ben kaleciyim: iki elimi de kullanırım.
No, Zehra Hanım. I’m a goalkeeper: I use both hands.
Zehra:
Peki, yangın neredeydi?
All right, and where was the fire?
Tolga:
Yangın yoktu. Mutfağa girdiğimde duman kahve makinesinden geliyordu.
There wasn’t one. When I went into the kitchen, the smoke was coming from the coffee machine.
Tolga:
Makine çalışıyordu ama içinde su yoktu.
It was running with no water in it.
Zehra:
Kural üç, Kerem Bey. Hatırlıyor musunuz?
Rule three, Kerem Bey. Do you remember it?
Kerem:
“Boş mu? O zaman yeni kahveyi sen yapmalısın.”
“Empty? Then you’re the one who makes the next pot.”
Zehra:
Evet. Son kahveyi kim içti? Tutanağa onu da yazacağız.
Yes. Who had the last coffee? That’s going in the report too.
Defne:
Ben içmedim.
I didn’t.
Tolga:
Benim elimde çay vardı.
I had my tea in my hand.
Kerem:
Ben de içmedim. Ama makinenin yanında bir fincan vardı.
I didn’t either. But there was a cup beside the machine.
Zehra:
Hangi fincan?
What cup?
Kerem:
Mavi fincan, Zehra Hanım. Sizin fincanınız.
The blue one, Zehra Hanım. Yours.
Zehra:
Kahvemi içer içmez telefon çaldı… Makineyi unuttum.
The moment I’d drunk my coffee, the phone rang… I forgot the machine.
Tolga:
Bugün kahveler sizden, Zehra Hanım!
The coffee’s on you today, Zehra Hanım!
Zehra:
Kural kuraldır, Tolga Bey. Kahve on dakika sonra hazır. Geç kalanı affetmem!
Rules are rules, Tolga Bey. Coffee in ten minutes. And I don’t forgive anyone who’s late!
çaldığında, girdiğimde, çalınca, duyunca, duyar duymaz, içer içmez: all today’s “when”s. Kerem is quoting Defne in Lesson 1, the office’s third rule. Bugün kahveler sizden is Tolga’s O gün çaylar benden from last lesson, turned round. And Geç kalanı affetmem is what Defne warned Kerem about in that same Lesson 1: Zehra Hanım her şeyi affeder, geç kalmayı affetmez, “Zehra Hanım forgives everything except lateness.”
10Reading
Tolga Bey needs to know why number 5’s old supports broke, and only the neighbour can say. Defne goes to see her and writes down what she tells her for the house’s dosya, its file. The first and last lines are Defne’s own; the rest is Sabiha Hanım talking. Read it through; open a translation only where you’re stuck.
Beş numaranın dosyası
Defne’s note for number 5’s file.
Konu: Beş numaranın eski payandaları.
Subject: number 5’s old supports.
Tolga Bey eski payandaların neden kırıldığını soruyor.
Tolga Bey is asking why the old supports broke.
Yeni cumbayı yapmadan önce bunu bilmeliyiz.
We need to know before we build the new cumba.
Bunu bilen tek kişi üç numarada oturuyor.
The one person who knows lives at number 3.
Dün akşam ona gittim.
Yesterday evening I went to see her.
O anlattı, ben yazdım.
She talked and I wrote.
— Doksanlı yıllardı, kızım.
“It was the nineties, dear.”
Kış akşamıydı, kar yağıyordu.
“A winter evening, and it was snowing.”
Ben cumbamda oturuyordum.
“I was sitting in my cumba.”
Nevin de yan evde, kendi cumbasında kitap okuyordu.
“Next door Nevin was in hers, reading a book.”
Saat dokuzda Hayri Bey sokağın başından bağırdı: “Bozaaa!”
“At nine Hayri Bey called out from the top of the street: ‘Bozaaa!’”
Her akşam öyleydi: Nevin o sesi duyar duymaz merdivenden aşağı koşuyordu.
“It was the same every evening: the moment Nevin heard that voice, she ran down the stairs.”
O akşam da kitabını cumbada bırakıp koştu.
“That evening too she left her book in the cumba and ran.”
Tam sokak kapısından çıktığı sırada büyük bir gürültü duydum.
“Just as she was going out of the street door, I heard a great crash.”
Beş numaranın cumbası titredi.
“Number 5’s cumba shook.”
Payandalardan biri kırıldı, cumbanın bir köşesi birden aşağı indi.
“One of the supports broke, and a corner of the cumba suddenly dropped.”
Nevin’in kitabı sokağa, karın üstüne düştü.
“Nevin’s book fell into the street, onto the snow.”
Babası yukarı koştu.
“Her father ran upstairs.”
Kızını cumbada göremeyince “Nevin! Nevin!” diye bağırdı.
“When he couldn’t see his daughter in the cumba, he shouted: ‘Nevin! Nevin!’”
Ben de bağırmak istiyordum, sesim çıkmıyordu.
“I wanted to shout too, and no sound would come.”
Aşağı baktım.
“I looked down.”
Nevin sokaktaydı, Hayri Bey’in yanında.
“Nevin was in the street, beside Hayri Bey.”
Elinde iki bardak boza vardı.
“She had two glasses of boza in her hands.”
“Ne oldu, baba?” diye bağırdı.
“‘What’s happened, Dad?’ she called.”
Hayri Bey o akşam bozasını sattı, gitti.
“That evening Hayri Bey sold his boza and went on his way.”
Sesiyle bir kızı kurtardığını hâlâ bilmiyor.
“He still doesn’t know his voice saved a girl.”
Ertesi gün Nevin’in babası ustayı çağırdı ve o cumbayı yıktırdı.
“The next day Nevin’s father called the usta and had that cumba pulled down.”
Ertesi akşam saat dokuzda cumbamdan ilk kez bir sepet indirdim.
“The next evening at nine I let a basket down from my cumba for the first time.”
İçine iki bardağın parasını koydum: biri benim, biri onun.
“I put in the money for two glasses: one for me, one for him.”
Otuz yıldır her kış akşamı ona teşekkür ediyorum.
“For thirty years I’ve been thanking him, every winter evening.”
Geçen kış cumbam gıcırdayınca seni hemen aradım.
“Last winter, when my cumba creaked, I rang you straight away.”
O sesi biliyordum.
“I knew that sound.”
Tolga Bey’in sorusunun cevabı kısa: payandalar eskiydi, kar ağırdı.
The answer to Tolga Bey’s question is short: the supports were old and the snow was heavy.
Uzun cevap bu dosyada.
The long answer is in this file.
Not: Hayri Bey’e söylemedim.
P.S. I haven’t told Hayri Bey.
In Lesson 11 Hayri Bey told the local paper: Üç numaranın sepeti. Otuz yıldır her akşam saat dokuzda cumbadan iner, and then: İçinde hep iki bardağın parası var: biri Sabiha Hanım’ın, biri benim. Now you know where the second glass comes from. And that call is the night call from the same lesson: Defne Hanım, cumba gıcırdıyor!
1What does Tolga Bey want to know?
2Where was Nevin when the support broke?
3Why does Sabiha Hanım send down the money for a second glass?
11The lesson’s new words
These are the words the lesson brought in for the first time, in the order you met them. The historical köşklü, tulumbacı, ağa and omuzdaş aren’t here: they stayed in “Türkiye up close”.
New words
- birdensuddenly
- az kalsınnearly, almost
- alarmalarm
- ister istemezlike it or not
- yangınfire (that does damage)
- oğlanboy
- dumansmoke
- tutanaksigned report, official record
- yöneticimanager
- söndürücüfire extinguisher
- dosyafile
- gürültünoise, crash
- titremekto shake, to tremble
- kurtarmakto save, to rescue
- ağırheavy
12Say it yourself
Out loud first, then the answer. For each one, ask yourself: was it going on, or did it happen? And which of the five “when”s is it? Getting it wrong and then checking is exactly what this is for.
what were you doing when the alarm went off?
Alarm çaldığında ne yapıyordunuz?
I nearly forgot the drawing
Az kalsın çizimi unutuyordum.
the moment I heard it, I ran
Duyar duymaz koştum.
when Kerem didn’t come, I rang him
Kerem gelmeyince ona telefon ettim.
just as I was going out of the door, the phone rang
Tam kapıdan çıktığım sırada telefon çaldı.
when the alarm goes off, we’ll go down the stairs
Alarm çaldığında merdivenden ineceğiz.
13Check 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: “When the alarm went off, I was on the phone.”
Alarm çaldığında telefonla ?
3Az kalsın düşüyordum means…
4Alarm çaldığında dışarı çıkacağız means…
5Fill in the right word: “When Kerem didn’t come, I rang him.”
Kerem ? ona telefon ettim.
6Fill in the right words: “I’m leaving the moment the meeting ends.”
Toplantı ? çıkacağım.
14Homework
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.
- Out loud, every person: çalışıyordum, çalışıyordun — and on to onlar. Then in the negative, çalışmıyordum…, and as a question, çalışıyor muydum…
- Out loud: what were you doing yesterday at seven, at nine and at midnight? Dün saat yedide… Five sentences, and save -dı for what happened.
- One scene from your own life with the five “when”s, a sentence each: -ken, -dığında, -dığı sırada, -ınca, -ır -maz.
- A tutanak of five or six sentences, like Zehra Hanım’s: something’s happened at home or at work. Who was doing what when it happened? Who did what next?
- An evening you remember, the way Sabiha Hanım remembers hers: six or seven sentences. First the background in -yordu, then what happened in -dı, with at least one -ır -maz.