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Prerequisites for this Turkish Grammar Lesson
Continuation of a verb-ıp durmak
-akalmak
-ıp kalmak
-a dur
-ar/ır/r
12 uses of the aorist
To continue to do something
Verb + maya/meye devam etmek
This is the most common and most versatile of the various grammar forms that convey the meaning of continuation. The “devam etmek” verb can be conjugated into any tense (past, present, future) with any personal ending (first person, second person, third person). This form is used for saying that someone is continuing to do an action.
Examples
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Siz çay içmeye devam edin, benim işim var. Yarın görüşürüz.
You guys keep drinking tea, I have something I need to do. See you tomorrow.
Mehmet yürümeye devam etti çünkü yağmur yağıyordu.
Mehmet kept walking because it was raining.
Keep doing what you’re doing (‑adurmak)
Grammar form:
- Verb + (y) + a/e dur + (command or desire ending)
The following uses of the word durmak may seem strange to English speakers because “durmak” is usually has a meaning of, “to stop,” but in these cases it has the opposite meaning of “stop.” That is, “durmak” in these sentences has a meaning of “stay”, “keep on” or “continue.”
In the examples below, the durmak verb is used with one of the command or desire endings. This combination is used primarily when the speaker has been doing an action with other people. Then they use this form to say that the others should continue doing the action without them.
It can also be used to sarcastically tell someone to go ahead and keep on doing something (and see if I care!) In this case, it shows the speaker’s disapproval of the action.
Note that the ‑adur- grammar form is sometimes written with a space between the first and second verbs (e.g. “yapadur”), and sometimes is written without a space (“yapa dur”).
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Examples
Siz irmik helvasını yiye durun ben bir dolaşıp geleyim.
You guys keep on eating Irmik Helva and let me go wander around and come back.
(Excerpt from post on recipe blog)
Siz oynayadurun, ben de mamasını hazırlayayım. Sonra ilacını içiririz.
You guys keep playing and let me get his baby food ready. After that we’ll give him his medicine.
(Excerpt from short story)
Ben biraz daha uyuyacağım. Sen de onunla muhabbet ededur.
I’m going to sleep a little more. You just keep on chatting with him.
(Excerpt from book)
Siz boş boş konuşadurun, bisiklet satıldı.
You guys can keep on talking about nothing, but the bike has been sold.
(Excerpt from debate about a bike sale)
Kış kışlığını yapa dursun, / Bahar da kendini hazırlıyordu, / Kışa inat…
Let winter keep on being winter, / Spring was preparing itself, / To spite winter…
(Excerpt from poem)
He keeps on doing it (‑ıp durmak)
Grammar form:
- Verb + (y) + ip/ıp/up/üp dur + (any tense, especially present)
- Verb + (y) + ip/ıp/up/üp durma(yın)
The durmak verb in this grammar form can be any tense, but is most often used in the continuous present tense (iyor). This form is used when explaining that a person has been continually doing an action for a period of time. It is often used when complaining about one’s current state or complaining about someone else’s repeated offence.
When the durmak verb has a negative ending followed by a command form (‑ıp durmayın), it is for telling someone to stop doing something annoying. In this way, it is similar to saying, “cut it out!” in English.
In the Aegean dialect of Turkish, the ‑ıp dur- grammar form is very common. In that dialect, it often gets used with the ‑ur aorist tense (e.g. “yapıp durur”).
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Examples
Tekrar dene diyorum aynı hata tekrar geliyor ve bu şekilde devam edip duruyor. Ne yapmalıyım?
I click “try again,” the same error pops up again and it keeps going on like this. What do I need to do?
(Comment on video game forum)
Burada hücre gibi kapandığım odamda çalışıp duruyorum.
Here I’m locked up in my room like a cell just working away.
(Excerpt from book)
Vır-vır-vır konuşup duruyor direksiyon başındayken.
Blah-blah-blah ‑ all he does is talk when he’s at the steering wheel!
(Excerpt from book)
İnternetten gelen her postayı forward edip durmayın!
Cut it out with the forwarding of every [single] email you find on the Internet!
(Excerpt from rant on a news website)
Sevdiğimiz kişi tarafından sevilmek için de dua edip duracağız.
We are going to pray continuously that we will be loved by the person who we love.
(Excerpt from book description)
Ha, sizin de eğer isteklerinizin olursa, bizim birader var, Ersin… bisikletle dolaşıp durur şimdi. Ona verebilirsiniz.
Oh, and if you have any [song] requests, we have our brother, Ersin… he’s riding all around on his bike now. You can give them to him.
(Quote from Yeşil Deniz, a TV show with mainly Aegean accents)
Frozen in place (‑akalmak, ‑ıp kalmak)
Grammar form:
- Verb + (y) + a/e + kal + (any tense, especially past)
- Verb + (y) + ip/ıp/up/üp kal + (any tense, especially past)
This grammar form is mainly used with the following verbs:
- Saşmak / şaşırmak (to be surprised)
- Kalmak (to stay or pause)
- Bakmak (to look)
- Donmak (to freeze)
This verb form is most commonly used in the past tense to describe some extreme reaction of astonishment. It is used with the verbs listed above to say that a person froze in place, staring on for a while with wide eyes.
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Examples
Karar açıklanınca sanıklar donakaldı.
When the [court’s] decision was announced, the witnesses were left speechless.
(Title of news story)
Taşten İnce, koyunlarının telef olduğunu görünce şaşırıp kaldı.
When Taşten İnce saw that his sheep had been killed, he was shocked and horrified.
(Excerpt from news story)
Ben orada öküzün trene baktığı gibi bakıp kaldım.
I just stood and stared like an ox looks at a train [like a cow looks at an oncoming train].
(Excerpt from book)
Doktor hanımın rahatlatması ve açıklaması gerekirken bizi öyle bir korkuttu ki şaşakaldık.
While doctor should have been explaining things in a reassuring way, she frightened us so much that we were quite stunned.
(Excerpt from negative review of a hospital)
Galatasaray Başkanı Dursun Özbek dün eşiyle geldiği Roma’da maç sonu oturduğu yerde kalakaldı.
After the end of the match they attended yesterday in Rome, Galatasaray President Dursun Özbek and his wife sat frozen in place (out of astonishment).
(Excerpt of news story)
Exception: uyuyakalmak
When the ‑akalmak ending is put on the uyumak (to sleep) verb, the meaning is not related to a continuation of the verb (as with the other examples above). Instead, the meaning of uyuyakalmak is to accidentally fall asleep. When used in the first person (I accidentally fell asleep), it is usually paired with the ‑mış ending instead of the simple past tense ‑dı ending because it was something that the person did without realizing it.
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Examples
O kadar yorgundum ki uyuyakalmışım.
I was so exhausted that I accidentally fell asleep.
(Excerpt from book)
Akşama kadar ağlamıştı ve sonunda yorgun düşerek uyuyakalmıştı.
She had cried all evening and finally got tired and had fallen asleep.
(Excerpt from short story)
Additional Resources
- Continuation of a verb (‑agelmek)
- Yapıları Bakımından Fiiller
- This online article has an explanation of these grammar forms in Turkish and a few example sentences. See section 3 (Sürerlik fiili) for the ‑adur and ‑akal endings.
- Sürerlik Fiili, Süreklilik Eylemi, Özellikleri
- This is another Turkish resource that explains these concepts in Turkish and gives more example sentences.
- Türkçe Öğreniyorum, Yüksek Türkçe: page 103.
- This page has a brief explanation of these forms in Turkish along with 17 fill-in-the-blank exercise questions.
This lesson is a prerequisite for:
Continuation of a verb-agelmek