Lesson 11

11.1 THE CONDITIONAL

The conditional describes a hypothetical action. Something which can be translated in simple form with "would be, would do".

In Turkish you form the conditional with the suffix -sa/-sa.

The suffix follows the Little Vowel Harmony:
If the last vowel of the verb stem is an e, i, ö or ü the suffix is -se.
If the last vowel of the verb stem is an a, ı, o or u the suffix is -sa.

The examples:
bilsem = if I would know
bilsen = if you would know
bilse = if he/she/it would know
bilsek = if we would know
bilseniz = if you (plural) would know
bilseler = if they would know

yapsam = if I would do
yapsan = if you would do
yapsa = if he/she/it would do
yapsak = if we would do know
yapsanız = if you (plural) would do
yapsalar = if they would do

In conditonal of course you can change also the tenses:
yapsaydım = if I would have done
yapsaydın = if you would have done
yapsaydı = if he/she/it would have done
yapsaydık = if we would have done
yapsaydınız = if you (plural) would have done
yapsaydılar = if they would have done

11.2 NEGATION OF CONDITONAL

For negating the conditional we use the famous suffix -me/-ma:

bilmesem = if I wouldn’t know
bilmesen = if you wouldn’t know
bilmese = if he/she/it wouldn’t know
bilmesek = if we wouldn’t know
bilmeseniz = if you (plural) wouldn’t know
bilmeseler = if they wouldn’t know

yapmasam = if I wouldn’t do
yapmasan = if you wouldn’t do
yapmasa = if he/she/it wouldn’t do
yapmasak = if we wouldn’t do
yapmasanız = if you (plural) wouldn’t do
yapmasalar = if they wouldn’t do

11.3 MODIFICATIONS OF CONDITIONAL

You can also combine the conditional with var or yok:

varsa = if there is
yoksa = if there isn't

Domates varsa, bana lütfen iki kilo verir misin? = If there are tomatos please give me 2 kilos?

11.4 "IF" = "EĞER"

Another option to form conditional phrases is offered by eğer. Anyway the suffixes –se/-sa still have to be used but if you begin your sentence with eğer the listener knows automatically that a conditional sentence is now following.
Example:
Eğer domates varsa, bana lütfen iki kilo verir misin?