Turkish Future Tense

To form Future tense I -ecek or – acak is attached to the verb if the verb ends with a consonant (yap, gör, seç). If the the verb ends with a vowel, “y” comes to prevent vowel repetition; -yecek, -yacak is attached according to the minor/major vowel harmonies. (Check out the vowel harmony video if you don’t know) It is very simple!

Turkish Future Tense – Examples:

seç-ecek
S/he will choose

al-acak
S/he will buy or take

gideceğiz
We will go

kesiceksiniz
You (pl) ll cut

A tiny detail here! if the verb-stem ends with e or a, e becomes i; a becomes ı in daily speech.

Future Tense in Turkish – Examples:

yaşa(y)acak < yaşıyacak.
İzmir’de yaşıyorum
I live in Izmir

Terle(y)ecek < terliyecek.
Kumsalda terliyeceksiniz.
You (pl) ll sweat at the beach

The function of Turkish future tense is almost the same of the English future tense. To describe what is going to happen or to express an action that has not happened yet, the future tense is used. Planned or not, no distinction between them in Turkish.

Future Tense – Example:

Yarın Mersin’e gideğim
I’ll go to Mersin tomorrow

Yarın Mersin’e gidecek
S/he’ll go to Mersin tomorrow

Yarın Mersin’e gideceksin
You’ll go to Mersin tomorrow

When formed for the second plural and singular person, then it might be implied an imperative, even in an impolite way. It depends on how the speaker says it. Watch Imperative video if you want to learn more.

Future Tense in Turkish – Examples:

Yarın İzmir’e gideceksin.
You’ll go to Mersin even if you dont want to.

Bu raporları akşamdan önce teslim edeceksiniz.
You’ll hand these reports in before the evening

Turkish Future Tense Conjugations

SINGULAR

Ben Sen O
VERB+ (y)eceğim (y)eceksin (y)ecek
oku- okuyacağım okuyacaksın okuyacak
kal- kalacağım kalacaksın kalacak
iç- içeceğim içeceksin içecek

PLURAL

Biz Siz Onlar
VERB+ (y)eceğiz (y)eceksiniz (y)ecekler
oku- okuyacağız okuyacaksınız okuyacaklar
kal- kalacağız kalacaksınız kalacaklar
iç- içeceğiz içeceksiniz içecekler

Future Tense – Examples

Ödevlerimi yapacağım
I’ll do my homework

Yaz
Summer

Yazlık
Summer house / Summer clothes

Yarın yazlıkta kalacağım
I’ll stay at the summer house tomorrow

As you can see on the table, k becomes ğ for the singular and plural first pronoun. This mutation occurs simply because it is easier for Turks to eliminate the sound of “k” and instead lengthen the previous vowel. Moreover, this phonetic phenomenon is well described by Jacob Grimm with Grimm’s law.The consonant shift in Turkish and the shift explained by Grimm have slight differences in the sense of being an evolutionary change yet they have the same regular correspondence.

Future in Past Tense in Turkish (was about to)

Turkish future past can be translated as ‘was about to’ or ‘was going to’ into English. The pattern is explained on the table.

SINGULAR

Ben Sen O
VERB+ (y)ecektim (y)ecektin (y)ecekti
oku- okuyacaktım okuyacaktın okuyacaktı
kal- kalacaktım kalacaktın kalacaktı
iç- içecektim içecektin içecekti

Future in Past Tense – Examples

Biraz daha fazla yüzecektim
I was about to swim more
I was going to swim more

Ben de tam eve gidecektim
I was just about to go home

Fazla içecektik
We were about to drink more

Let’s see the future past for plural pronouns:

PLURAL

Biz Siz Onlar
VERB+ (y)ecektik (y)ecektiniz (y)ecektiler
oku- okuyacaktık okuyacaktınız okuyacaktılar
kal- kalacaktık kalacaktınız kalacaktılar
iç- içecektik içecektiniz içecektiler

Future in past tense Turkish – Example:

Ödevlerinizi yapacaktınız
You were going to do your homework

Yazlığa gidecektiler
They were about to go to the summer house

Kalacaktılar, n’oldu?
They were about to stay, what happened?

Check out the Future in the Past video if you want to study with the pronunciations.

(Ancient) Turkish Future Form

>The use of the Future Tense II is very limited in modern Turkish. In daily life, you may still hear from old people but if a young person uses it, probably it is a joke. Yet it is still helpful to have an idea about the use because, in the Turkish televisions, it is commonly used as a part of the humor.Today, Future II is used to curse something or someone.

(Ancient) Turkish Future – Examples:

Soyu sopu kuruyasıca
lit. (Wish) your breed would dry

Gün yüzü göremeyesice
(Wish) you wont see day light

These are the most popular ones. They are called beddua (malediction) and are given here for you to have an idea about the structure. Do not use them!