The Inferential Past Tense.
Inferential: [adjective] - of reasoning; proceeding from general premises to a necessary and specific conclusion
Inference: [noun] - The reasoning involved in drawing a conclusion or making a logical judgment on the basis of circumstantial evidence and prior conclusions rather than on the basis of direct observation.
In short: - Based on interpretation; not directly expressed.
- thanks to - audioenglish.net -
This tense is used where doubt or hearsay is in the speaker's mind. It is often used in jokes and story telling as a reportative form. The Inferential Suffix is -miş which is suffixed to the verb stem and the personal endings are then added to complete the meaning.
In English this tense can be translated as:
I believe that.. he went out.
We think that.. he has arrived.
Presumably.. the train will be on time.
All showing some uncertainty or lack of prior knowledge.
This tense is widely used on a daily basis in spoken and written Turkish. It is used all the time in daily conversation.
Some Examples
We can show some of the (English) shades of meaning by example:
- çıkmışım - I think that I went out - doubt
- çıkmışsın - Presumably you have left - possibility
- çıkmış - He has left as far as I know - reportative
- çıkmışız - I think that we left at.. - uncertainty
- çıkmışsınız - They say that you went out - hearsay
- çıkmışlar - Its pretty sure that they have left - probability
All the examples above show that this tense is used whenever the speaker has not been an eyewitness to the past events.
If the question is asked:
- Mehmet çıktı mı? - Has Mehmet gone out?
- then we could answer in the Past Definite Tense -
- O çıktı. - He has gone out.
- meaning - Yes he has gone out for sure (I saw him go).
Or we may answer in the Past Inferential Tense:
- O çıkmış. - He has gone out
- meaning - As far as I know he has left, (but I did not actually see him go myself.)
All this meaning is within the -miş Inferential Past Tense itself.
Negative Verb - yapmamak - not to do
In all the examples below the words in brackets - I think that.... etc.. are not required in Turkish as the Inferential Tense (The -miş Tense already says it all...
- Ben yapmamışım ki - (I think that) I did not do it.
- Sen yapmamışsın ki - (They say that) You did not do it.
- O yapmamış ki - (It seems that) He did not do it.
- Biz yapmamışız ki - (They say that) We did not do it.
- Siz yapmamışsınız ki - (It is reported that) You did not do it.
- Onlar yapmamışlar ki - (Apparently) They did not do it. (but they might have).
Note: In the above example - ki - is an object - it.. or - that.. - to complete the sentence with an object for a transitive verb.
Question Forms and Meanings
The Interrogative Particle - subject to Vowel Harmony -mi follows the verb and is written separately together with the relavent Personal Pronoun:
Example Conjugation of the Positive Interrogative Inferential
Note: - That all the ways of stating English inference which are shown in the square brackets do not need to be said in Turkish as they are already understood by usage of the Inferential Tense...
Note: To show these examples clearly we have supplied an Object - Onu.. - It.. in each case
- Onu yapmış mıyım? - Have I done it [I wonder..]? / Did I do it, [I'm not sure..]?
- Onu yapmış mısın? - Have you done it [at all..]? / Did you do it [anyrate..]?
- Onu yapmış mı? - Has he done it [then..]? / Did he do it [yet..]?
- Onu yapmış mıyız? - Have we done it [I wonder..]? / Did we do it, [I'm not sure..]?
- Onu yapmış mısınız? - Have you done it [at all..]? / Did you do it [anyrate..]?
- Onu yapmışlar mı? - Have they done it [surely..]? / Did they do it [yet..]?
Example Conjugation of the Negative Interrogative Inferential
Note: - Of course there are many ways of showing inference in English, even the tone of the voice can be enough, and we have only shown a few ways in these examples above and below to show doubt, uncertainly and lack of prior knowledge which the Turkish Inferential Tense already inherently contains within itself
Note: To show these examples clearly we have supplied an Object - Onu.. - It.. in each case
- Onu yapmamış mıyım? - Haven't I done it [I wonder..]? / Didn't I do it, [I'm not sure..]?
- Onu yapmamış mısın?- Haven't you done it [at all..]? / Didn't you do it [anyrate..]?
- Onu yapmamış mı?- Hasn't he done it [then..]? / Didn't he do it [yet..]?
- Onu yapmamış mıyız? - Haven't we done it [I wonder..]? / Didn't we do it, [I'm not sure..]?
- Onu yapmamış mısınız? - Haven't you done it [at all..]? / Didn't you do it [anyrate..]?
- Onu yapmamışlar mı?- Haven't they done it [surely..]? / Didn't they do it [yet..]?
A few more examples..
- Çıkmış mi? - Has he (seemingly) left? (would you know?) - possibility.
- Gülmüşler mi ? - Did they laugh? (at all?) - a question asking for a report.
- Onu yapmamış mısınız? - Haven't you done it? (at all?) - uncertainty.
- Onu yapmamış mısınız? - You haven't (gone and) done it have you? - doubt.
