About the Subjunctive Mood
This mood is used quite widely in daily conversation, especially the first person singular and plural forms. The Subjunctive Mood gives a sense of doubt, uncertainty or wish. - Let me.. Let us.. or in the negative - Let me not... Let us not...
The third person forms are also used regularly. Should a secretary say to the boss that Ahmet bey has arrived then the answer might be - Let him wait.. or Let him come in.. then in these cases the Subjunctive Mood would be used.
A special case
The special third person form of the Imperative is also used quite a lot for wishes and desire , especially in Formula Speak - For instance if a person is ill we will say - I hope he gets better soon.
Turkish however will say - I hope it passes quickly - Geçmiş olsun - Lit: May it pass (from you)
Formation of The Subjunctive Mood
The Personal Endings for the Subjunctive mood are as follows:
Subjunctive Mood Sign is -e for verbs whose last vowel is -e, -i, -ö, -ü
Mood Sign -a is used for verbs whose last vowel is -a, -ı, -o, -u
As the Mood Sign is -a or -e - Then it follows that there are only two forms of the Personal Endings as shown above for the Subjunctive (again due to vowel harmony rules).
The Singular Personal Endings - Subjunctive
- -eyim - let me.. or -ayım - let me..
- -esin - let you.. or -asın - let you..
- -e - let him.. or -a - let him..
The Plural Personal Endings - Subjunctive
- -elim - let us.. or -alım - let us..
- -esiniz - let you.. or -asınız - let you..
- -eler - let them.. or -alar - let them..
Special Case
The third person singular and plural also have an ending suffix -sin and -sinler
This is discussed in The Imperative Mood.
Formation of the Subjunctive Mood
The Subjunctive Mood Sign is -a or -e which is added to the basic verb stem - according to Vowel Harmony Rules:
If the bare verb stem ends in a vowel then the Subjunctive Mood Sign becomes -ya or -ye (Uses buffer letter -y-)
An example of a verb from the E-Dotted Group of Vowels
gelmek - to come - becomes - gel-e-yim - I better come
- geleyim - let me come, I better come
- gelesin - let you come, you should come along
- O gele - let him come, he should come
- gelelim - let us come, we better come
- gelesiniz - let you come, you come along
- geleler - let them come, they ought to come too
Example of the A-Undotted Vowel Group.
bakmak - to look - becomes - bak-a-yım - let me look
- koşmak - to run - koşasın - let him run
- bulmak - to find - becomes - o bula - let him find
- çıkmak - to leave - çıkalım - lets go!
- kaçmak - to escape, to leave - kaçasınız - off you go!
- korkmak - to be afraid - korkalar - let them fear
Example of Verb Stems which end in a Vowel
In the case of verb stems which end in a vowel -(including all negative verbs) - then -ye or -ya is used - (buffer letter -y)
- aramak - to look for - arayalım - ara -ya -lım - let uss look for (it)
- beklemek - to wait, to expect - bekleyeyim - bekle -ye -yim - let me wait etc.
The Negative Form of all the above then become:
- gitmemek - not to go - gitmeyelim - lets not go
- bakmamak - not to look - Ahmet mektubu bakmaya - let Ahmet not see the letter
- This is not an order but a wish - Hopefully Ahmet will not see the letter, but....
- bulmamak - not to find - bulmayalar - Hopefully they won't find it.
- beklememek - not to wait - beklemeyeyim - I'd better not wait.
The Interrogative of the Subjunctive Mood
The Interrogative Particle mi? or mı? is written separately but obeys Vowel Harmony Rules:
- geleyim mi? - should I come (too)?
- yürüyelim mi? - should we walk?
- yürümeyelim mi? - shouldn't we walk?
- gidelim mi? - Should we go (then)?
Subjunctive Mood - Past Tense
The Past tense of the Subjunctive Mood gives the sense of: I wish that I had... If only we had... etc. And the negative: I wish that I hadn't... If only they hadn't... etc.
Then adding the Past Tense personal endings the to Subjunctive Mood base we arrive at:
- gideydim ... - if only I had gone...
- Ahmet gelmiyeydi... - If only Ahmet hadn't come (along)..
- arayaydık.. - If only we had looked for (it)...
How to say - Since.. in Turkish
This structure has the suffix -li - containing added to the - Subjunctive Verb Stem ie. Gide plus -li becomes gideli. The subject person is also stated and the tense is taken from the final main verb
-eli, -eli beri, -eliden beri, -diX -eli - since, (with the -di past ending conjugated as needed.)
All these mean - Since we came to Istanbul it has not rained:
- Biz İstanbul'a geleli hiç yağmur yağmadı.
- Biz İstanbul'a geleli beri hiç yağmur yağmadı.
- Biz İstanbul'a geleliden beri hiç yağmur yağmadı.
- (Biz) İstanbul'a geldik geleli hiç yağmur yağmadı.
Note: from the meanings given above it can be seen that this mood can have a wide interpretation in usage and translation which can only be obtained by practice and observation.
