Totally Turkish - Past Continuous Tense - Learn Turkish Online

The past continuous tense is the equivalent of 'i was....ing' in English. It describes an action that was taking place in the past.

To form this tense add the following suffix onto a verb;

'-iyordum' - 'i was...'
eg 'i was coming' - 'gel-iyordum'

Following the same pattern as the present continuous tense we must change parts of the ending according to vowel harmony.

If the last vowel in the verb is;

e/i - the suffix will stay '-iyordum'
a/ı - the suffix will become '-ıyordum'
o/u - the suffix will become '-uyordum'
ö/ü - the suffix will become '-üyordum'

Personal endings

'-iyordum' - 'i was.....'
'-iyordun' - 'you were....'(singular/familiar)
'-iyordu' - 'he/she/it was.....'
'-iyorduk' - 'we were.....''
'-iyordunuz' - 'you were......(plural/polite)
'-iyorlardı' - 'they were.......'

examples
'i was going' = 'gidiyordum'
'you were staying' = 'kalıyordun'
'he was looking' = 'bakıyordu'
'we were coming' = 'geliyorduk'
'you were going' = 'gidiyordunuz'
'they were looking' = 'bakyıorlardı'

Negative tense

To turn this tense negative, eg 'they were not looking', we must add the negative marker
'-me/ma' and change the 'e' to 'i' or the 'a' to 'ı'.

Follow this formula;

verb + negative (mi/mı) + past continuous + personal

bak + mı + yordu + m = 'i was not looking'
git + mi + yordu + n = 'you were not looking'
etc