Advanced Converbs in Turkish

In Brief

Advanced Turkish converbs compress relationships that English usually expresses with a whole clause. Use -dıkça/-dikçe/-dukça/-dükçe for “as,” “whenever,” or “the more”; -alı/-eli for time since an event; -asıya/-esiye for an extreme limit or degree; and forms such as yaparcasına for “as if doing.” The exact English translation changes with the context, so learn each form by the relationship it expresses rather than by one fixed equivalent.

Overview

A converb (zarf-fiil) is a verb form that works adverbially—that is, it adds information about the time, manner, degree, or circumstances of another action. Instead of joining two fully finite clauses (clauses whose verbs show tense and person), Turkish often marks the dependent action with a suffix: Hava ısındıkça kar eriyor “As the weather gets warmer, the snow is melting.”

At B2, these forms let you move beyond the basic sequence and manner conveyed by -ip, -erek, -ince, and -meden. The four groups here express gradual or repeated development (-dıkça), elapsed time from a starting point (-eli), an endpoint or striking intensity (-esiye), and comparison or imitation (-casına).

English speakers often look for a one-to-one connector such as “since” or “as.” That can be misleading. English “since” may give a reason, but Turkish -eli is temporal only. Likewise, -dıkça can mean “whenever,” “as long as,” or one half of a “the more … the more …” relationship. Read the main clause as well as the converb before choosing a translation.

How It Works

All four patterns obey Turkish vowel harmony. The capital letters in grammar formulas represent changing sounds: A becomes a/e, I becomes ı/i/u/ü, and D becomes d/t according to the preceding sound. These are non-finite forms: they do not normally carry tense and person endings of their own. Their time is interpreted in relation to the main verb.

-(D)IkçA: as, whenever, the more

Attach -(D)IkçA to the verb stem. The d becomes t after a voiceless consonant, and both vowels harmonize.

Verb	Formation	Result
çalışmak	çalış + tıkça	çalıştıkça
gelmek	gel + dikçe	geldikçe
okumak	oku + dukça	okudukça
görmek	gör + dükçe	gördükçe
gitmek	git + tikçe	gittikçe

This form has three closely related uses:

1. Parallel or gradual change: Yaşlandıkça daha iyi anlıyorum. “As I get older, I understand better.” Words such as daha “more” often make the increasing relationship explicit.
2. Repeated occasion: Onu gördükçe çocukluğumu hatırlıyorum. “Whenever I see him/her, I remember my childhood.”
3. Continuation under a condition: Birlikte çalıştıkça sorun çıkmaz. “As long as we keep working together, there will be no problem.” This reading depends strongly on context.

Negation comes before the converb: yap-ma-dıkça “unless/as long as [someone] does not do.” Negative -madıkça/-medikçe often corresponds to English unless: Sormadıkça öğrenemezsin “Unless you ask, you cannot learn.” Literally, the idea is “for as long as you do not ask.”

The subject is usually inferred. When it differs from the main-clause subject, state it explicitly: Sen konuştukça ben not alacağım “As you speak, I’ll take notes.”

-(y)AlI: since doing

Use -alı after back vowels and -eli after front vowels. After a vowel-final stem, insert y.

Verb	Formation	Result
gelmek	gel + eli	geleli
başlamak	başla + yalı	başlayalı
görmek	gör + eli	göreli
okumak	oku + yalı	okuyalı
ayrılmak	ayrıl + alı	ayrılalı

This form establishes the starting event of a period that continues up to a later reference point, usually now: İstanbul’a taşınalı üç ay oldu “It has been three months since I moved to Istanbul.” Common main-clause patterns include … oldu “it has been …,” ilk kez “for the first time,” and a statement about change during the interval.

A separate subject can appear before the converb: Sen gideli ev çok sessiz “The house has been very quiet since you left.” Turkish does not add a possessive ending to gideli; the pronoun supplies the subject.

Negation is -mayalı/-meyeli: Görüşmeyeli uzun zaman oldu “It has been a long time since we met.” Although the Turkish form is negative—literally, “since not seeing one another”—natural English often uses “since we last met.” Do not use -eli for causal “since” as in “Since it is raining, we’ll stay home”; use a reason construction such as yağmur yağdığı için.

-(y)AsIyA: until or to an extreme degree

The forms -asıya/-esiye attach to the verb stem, with y after a vowel. In present-day Turkish, they are especially noticeable in expressive degree phrases.

Verb	Result	Typical sense
ölmek	ölesiye	to death; extremely
doymak	doyasıya	to one’s fill
ağlamak	ağlayasıya	until/to the point of crying
çatlamak	çatlayasıya	until/to the point of bursting
dövmek	dövesiye	to the point of beating

With kadar, the form can mark an endpoint: Ayakları ağrıyasıya kadar yürüdü “He/she walked until his/her feet hurt.” Without kadar, several forms behave almost like vivid adverbs of degree: ölesiye sevmek “to love desperately/to death,” doyasıya yemek “to eat one’s fill,” and delicesine “madly” (a related adjective-based form).

The literal wording is often stronger than the intended English translation. Ölesiye çalıştı need not mean that anyone actually died; it presents the effort as extreme.

-cAsInA/-cAsInE patterns: as if, in the manner of

The comparison ending appears as -casına/-cesine (and, after a voiceless sound, -çasına/-çesine). With verbs, it normally follows a form that can present an imagined action or state rather than attaching directly to a bare stem.

Base	Formation	Meaning
yapmak	yapar + casına → yaparcasına	as if doing
koşmak	koşar + casına → koşarcasına	as if running / at a run
bilmek	bilir + cesine → bilircesine	as if knowing
görmemek	görmez + cesine → görmezcesine	as if not seeing; ignoring
unutmuş olmak	unutmuş + çasına → unutmuşçasına	as if having forgotten

The aorist (the general-present form such as yapar, bilir, or görmez) is common for a simultaneous or characteristic comparison. -mış/-miş + -çasına/-çesine presents the compared action as already completed or as an apparent state: Beni hiç tanımamışçasına davrandı “He/she acted as if he/she had never known me.”

This family also attaches to nouns and adjectives: çocukçasına “childishly/like a child,” delicesine “madly,” aptalcasına “foolishly.” Those are not verb converbs in the narrow sense, but they share the same manner-comparison function and are common alongside the verbal forms.

Examples in Context

Turkish	English	Note
Çalıştıkça başarılı olursun.	The more you work, the more successful you will be.	Parallel development
Türkçe konuştukça kendime güvenim artıyor.	The more I speak Turkish, the more my confidence grows.	daha is not required when the increase is clear
Bu şarkıyı dinledikçe seni hatırlıyorum.	Whenever I listen to this song, I remember you.	Repeated occasion
Denemeden vazgeçmedikçe ilerlersin.	You will make progress as long as you do not give up trying.	Negative condition
Gerçeği söylemedikçe sana inanmayacaklar.	They will not believe you unless you tell the truth.	-medikçe translated as “unless”
Buraya geleli iki yıl oldu.	It has been two years since I came here.	Elapsed time
Sen gideli her şey değişti.	Everything has changed since you left.	Different stated subject
Görüşmeyeli ne kadar oldu?	How long has it been since we last met?	Negative form, natural positive English translation
Çocuklar doyasıya oynadı.	The children played to their hearts’ content.	Full, satisfying degree
Ölesiye çalıştı.	He/she worked himself/herself to death.	Figurative extreme intensity
Ayakları ağrıyasıya kadar yürüdü.	He/she walked until his/her feet hurt.	Endpoint with kadar
Çocuk uçarcasına merdivenlerden indi.	The child came down the stairs as if flying.	Vivid manner comparison
Beni duymamışçasına yürümeye devam etti.	He/she kept walking as if he/she had not heard me.	Apparent completed action
Her şeyi bilircesine konuşuyor.	He/she speaks as if he/she knows everything.	Simultaneous comparison
Eski bir dostmuşçasına bana sarıldı.	He/she hugged me as if I were an old friend.	Nominal predicate with -muşçasına

Common Mistakes

Treating every -dıkça as “the more”

• Wrong interpretation: Onu gördükçe selam veriyorum. “The more I see him, I greet him more.”
• Better: “Whenever I see him, I say hello.”
• Why: -dıkça may indicate repeated occasions. Look for an actual gradual change before using “the more.”

Forgetting consonant harmony in -(D)IkçA

• Wrong: çalışdıkça
• Right: çalıştıkça
• Why: After the voiceless ş, suffix-initial d becomes t. The same process gives yaptıkça and gittikçe.

Adding a personal ending to -eli

• Wrong: Sen gidelin iki ay oldu.
• Right: Sen gideli iki ay oldu.
• Why: The pronoun identifies the subject; this converb itself does not conjugate for person.

Using -eli for a reason

• Wrong: Yağmur yağalı evde kalacağız. (intended: “Since it is raining, we’ll stay home.”)
• Right: Yağmur yağdığı için evde kalacağız.
• Why: -eli means “since the time when,” not causal English “since/because.”

Attaching -casına directly to a bare verb stem

• Wrong: yapcasına, bilcesine
• Right: yaparcasına, bilircesine
• Why: Verbal comparisons commonly use the aorist form before -casına/-cesine. Use -mışçasına/-mişçesine for an apparent prior event or resulting state.

Reading -esiye too literally

• Misleading: Seni ölesiye özledim only means “I missed you until I died.”
• Better: “I missed you terribly/desperately.”
• Why: ölesiye is frequently an intensifier. The image is extreme, but the statement is normally figurative.

Usage Notes

-dıkça and -eli are productive and natural in both conversation and writing. Gittikçe has also developed a very common adverbial meaning, “increasingly”: Hava gittikçe soğuyor “The weather is getting colder and colder.” In that use, it no longer describes literal repeated going.

-esiye is more expressive and less neutral. A few combinations—especially ölesiye, doyasıya, and kıyasıya “fiercely”—are much more frequent than freely invented forms. Use attested combinations first; a grammatically possible new form may sound literary, dramatic, or humorous.

Forms in -casına/-cesine are vivid and often imply that the comparison is not literally true. Bilircesine konuştu can be a neutral description, but in context it may criticize someone for acting as though they know. In careful writing, -mışçasına is common; in everyday speech, Turkish may instead use a finite comparison with gibi: Beni tanımıyormuş gibi davrandı “He acted as if he didn’t know me.” Both are natural, but the gibi version is often more conversational.

Punctuation follows the sentence structure, not the suffix. A short converb phrase normally takes no comma: Eve geldikçe beni arar. A comma may help when a long introductory unit would otherwise be hard to parse, but English comma habits should not be transferred automatically.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

The meanings can interact with aspect—how an event unfolds over time. -dıkça naturally presents recurrence or gradual progression, while -eli treats one event as a boundary from which time is measured. Compare:

• Onu tanıdıkça daha çok seviyorum. “The more I get to know him/her, the more I like him/her.” The process develops repeatedly.
• Onu tanıyalı hayatım değişti. “My life has changed since I met/got to know him/her.” One event starts the interval.

Negative -madıkça/-medikçe deserves special attention because it can range from a literal duration to a strong necessary condition:

• Yağmur dinmedikçe dışarı çıkmadık. “We did not go out while the rain continued.”
• Düzenli çalışmadıkça bu sınavı geçemezsin. “You cannot pass this exam unless you study regularly.”

With comparison forms, the choice between an aorist base and -miş changes the viewpoint. Kaçarcasına uzaklaştı pictures the person’s manner as resembling running away. Kaçmışçasına saklandı presents a state as if an escape had already happened. You will also encounter -ıyormuşçasına/-iyormuşçesine, which makes an ongoing appearance explicit: Hiçbir şey olmuyormuşçasına gülümsedi “He/she smiled as though nothing was happening.” These longer forms are especially useful in narrative and formal prose.

Finally, not every word ending in these letters should be analyzed afresh in conversation. Frequent items such as gittikçe, doyasıya, delicesine, and kıyasıya can function as established adverbs. Recognizing the underlying pattern helps, but fluent usage also depends on learning common combinations as whole expressions.

Practice Tips

1. Build four contrast sets. Choose one verb and make a sentence with -dıkça, then choose a natural starting event for -eli, an intensity phrase with -esiye, and a comparison with -casına. Do not force all four onto the same verb.
2. Translate relationships, not suffixes. When reading, label each example “gradual,” “repeated,” “since a starting point,” “extreme endpoint,” or “as if.” Only then write an idiomatic English translation.
3. Collect frequent chunks. Keep cards for gittikçe artmak, geleli … oldu, görüşmeyeli, doyasıya eğlenmek, and hiçbir şey olmamışçasına. Whole phrases will make the correct surrounding grammar automatic.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Basic Converbs — introduces compact verb connectors such as -ip, -erek, -ince, and -meden.