Indirect Sentence in Turkish (For Present Continious, Present Perfect, Past Tense)

Indirect Sentence in Turkish (For Present Continious, Present Perfect, Past Tense)

In this lesson, you can learn how to turn direct sentence into indirect sentence in Turkish. Attention! Indirect sentences change according to different tenses. In this lesson, you will learn the structure of the past tense indirect sentence in Turkish, the present continious indirect sentence in Turkish, and the present perfect tense indirect sentence in Turkish. We use same suffixes for all these 3 tenses, but there is a very slight difference between noun and verb sentences. We’ll talk about that too. But first of all, what are direct and indirect sentences? Let’s remember this.

Dolaysız Cümle (Direct Sentence): It is the giving of a word as it is said, without any change. A person’s views and opinions on any subject are given without any changes. This sentence is usually written in quotation marks. We use the verb “dedi” instead of “said” at the end of a direct sentence.

⇒Selma, “Ben daha önce İstanbul’a hiç gitmedim.“ dedi.

(Selma said, “I have never been to Istanbul before.”)

Dolaylı Cümle: (Indirect Sentence): This is a sentence with some changes, not the same sentence as said. It is the indirect transfer of a word by the speaker or the writer with a slight modification. We use the verb “söyledi” instead of “said” at the end of the indirect sentence.

⇒Selma, bana kendisinin daha önce İstanbul’a hiç gitmediğini söyledi.

(Selma said that she had never been to Istanbul before.)

 

How To Make Indirect Sentence in Turkish? (For Present Continious, Present Perfect, Past Tense)

Fiil Cümlelerinde (In Verb Sentences): We do indirect sentence in Turkish by adding some suffixes to the end of the verb in the quoted sentence. Whoever is doing the verb (that is, the subject of the quoted sentence) we do it by using the possessive suffix appropriate to the subject of the sentence. And we add the verb “söyle” (say) to the end! In the table below, you can see how the possessive suffixes change according to the person. When you read the example sentences under the table, you will understand the structure of indirect sentence in Turkish more clearly.

Direct: Selma, bana “Bugün ders çok geç bitti.” dedi.

Indirect: Selma, bana bugün dersin çok geç bittiğini söyledi.

 

Direct: Selma, bana “Telefonumu evde unutmuşum.“ dedi.

Indirect: Selma, bana telefonunu evde unuttuğunu söyledi.

 

Direct: Selma, Ahmet’e “Tatilden dönüyorum.” dedi.

Indirect: Selma, Ahmet’e tatilden döndüğünü söyledi.

 

Direct: Selma “Her gün spor yapmam” dedi.

Indirect: Selma her gün spor yapmadığını söyledi.

 

İsim Cümlelerinde (In noun Sentences): We add “ol” (to be) after the noun at the end of the sentence. And we add the possessive suffix appropriate to the subject of the sentence to the verb “ol”. And add the verb “söyle” (say) to the end!

IMPORTANT! If the quoted sentence is negative, ends with değil (not), we don’t use “değil”. We drop “değil” and use the “olma” (not to be).

IMPORTANT! If the quote sentence is a noun sentence with “var/yok” (there is/are), we don’t use “var/yok”. We drop them. We use “ol” instead of “var” and we use  “olma” instead of yok.

Direct: Müşteri, garsona “Kahvem çok soğuk.” dedi.

Indirect: Müşteri, garsona kahvesinin çok soğuk olduğunu söyledi.

 

Direct: O kız, bana “Ben Emine’yim.” dedi.

Indirect: O kız, bana (onun) Emine olduğunu söyledi.

 

Direct: Arkadaşım, bana “Saçların çirkin değil.” dedi.

Indirect: Arkadaşım, bana saçlarımın çirkin olmadığını söyledi.

 

Direct: Annem, sana “Dolapta peynir var.” dedi.

Indirect: Annem, sana dolapta peynir olduğunu söyledi.

 

Direct: Babam bana “Hiç param yok.” dedi.

Indirect: Babam bana hiç parası olmadığını söyledi.

 

Click on the lessons you need to know below and learn how to make indirect sentences for other tenses!

Indirect Sentence in Turkish (For Future Tense)

Indirect Sentence in Turkish (For Gereklilik Kipi / Necessity)

Indirect Sentence in Turkish (For Question Sentence / Soru Cümlesi için)

Indirect Sentence in Turkish (Imperative Sentence / Emir Cümlesi)

 

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