Turkish Reported Past Tense /Belirsiz veya Öğrenilen Geçmiş Zaman (mış miş muş müş)

Turkish reported past tense is a very useful tense suffix. It provides the opportunity to use it in many places and easily. It is different from the Turkish past tense with the -di suffix you learned earlier. Now let’s look at what kind of places and meanings this suffix is ​​used in order.

1. Basically; Turkish reported past tense is used when transferring information about an event that is not witnessed at the time of its occurrence and who is not aware of that event at the time of the event, but only the information about that event obtained from someone else. For example; you are talking to your friend about wedding of your mother and father, but actually you did not see their wedding, so you heard it from someone else (maybe from your mother)or learned it from somewhere. Another example; My mother went to the market BUT I did not see her when my mother went to the market, I heard from my little sister.)

• Annem ve babamın düğünü çok kalabalıkmış. (My mom and dad’s wedding was very crowded.)
• Baba, annem pazara gitmiş. Ayşe söyledi. (Dad, mom went to the market. Ayşe said.)

2. It is used for events that were not noticed at the time of the event, but were noticed later. You can use it if it happened in the past and you later realize the event by yourself. You don’t need to hear from anyone. You can find out for yourself. E.g; You went to school, class started. You will take a book out of your bag. You are looking for your book but cannot find it. When you can’t find the book, you realize that you actually forgot it at home. In this case, you can use this tense.

Öğretmenim, ben kitabımı evde unutmuşum. (Teacher, I forgot my book at home.)

3. You can also use it in case of witnessing an event later. Pay attention, “you witnessed it, you may be in the event right now”, but before you see the event, the event has already started to happen. You get involved later. Here it usually means to be surprised. For example, the hair of the person in front of me has turned white before, but I have witnessed it now, I have seen it now and I have witnessed that event. In this case, I can make a sentence like:

İnanamıyorum, saçların beyazlamış! (I can’t believe it, your hair has turned white!)

4. This structure is used when talking about historical events. Note that it is not very formal when used in this way. For example, a different structure is used in history textbooks, but if you are telling someone about an event that happened in history, you can use this structure comfortably.

Türkler Anadolu’ya Orta Asya’dan gelmişler. (Turks came to Anatolia from Central Asia.)

5. This structure is often used when telling such events as stories, fables, anecdotes.

Adam çok korkmuş, oradan hızla uzaklaşmış. Korkudan evin yolunu unutmuş ve kaybolmuş. Gece kendini evin önünde bulmuş. Hemen içeri girmiş…

(The man was very frightened and quickly ran away. Out of fear, he forgot the way home and got lost. He found himself in front of the house at night. He got in immediately…)

6. It is also frequently used when seeing someone and commenting on what they are wearing or the his/her style you just saw. For example, you can use this tense when you say that the outfit on her suits her, her new style suits her, or her new hair color does not.

• Kırmızı sana çok yakışmış. (Red suits you very well.)
• Pembe saç çok kötü olmuş. (Pink hair is so bad.)
• Yeni saçların çok güzel olmuş. (Your new hair is beautiful.)
• Kısa saç sana yakışmış. (Short hair suits you.)
• Elbise bana yakışmış mı? (Does the dress suit me?)

7. This tense can also be used when making irony. It is used to make fun of something that didn’t happen, as if it happened. Here, it is tried to say that it is not possible, this cannot actually happen.

Bana ne dedi biliyor musun? Ben parası için onunla berabermişim. Onu sevmiyormuşum. Parasını seviyormuşum. Benim gözüm paradan başka bir şey görmüyormuş. (Do you know what he said to me? I am with him for his money. I don’t love him. I love his money. My eyes see nothing but money.)

Rules About Turkish Reported Past Tense (mış miş muş müş)

• Turkish reported past tense suffix can seem in 4 different forms according to Turkish vowel harmony. (mış miş muş müş). That’s why we have to check 4 way vowel harmony. If the last vowel of word before suffix is “a  or  ı” in this case first vowel of suffix must contain “ı” (-mış). If the last vowel of word before suffix is “e or i” first vowel of suffix must contain “i” (-miş). If the last vowel of word before suffix is “ö  or  ü” first vowel of suffix must contain “ü” (-müş). If the last vowel of word before suffix is “o  or  u” first vowel of suffix must contain “u” (-muş).

 

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