Lesson 09

9.1 UNDEFINED PAST

The undefined past describes like the simple past an action which has been completed - with a small but important difference: you don’t tell "first hand" as you didn’t have been there when the action occured. Someone else told us his story and we re-tell it. This tense is very typical for jokes, fairy tales and stories.

Formed with the suffix -miş.

This suffix is determined by the GREAT VOWEL HARMONY which means it can have the forms
-mış, -miş, -muş and -müş.

Examples:
bilmişim = I knew (it might appear difficult to tell "2nd hand" that you knew something, but it can be translated with "I was supposed to know” because so has been told...)
bilmişsin = you knew (so has been told...)
bilmiş = he/she/it knew
bilmişiz = we knew
bilmişsiniz = you (plural) knew
bilmişler = they knew

yapmışım = I made ("I was supposed to make" because so has been told...)
yapmışsın = you made
yapmış = he/she/it made
yapmışız = we made
yapmışsınız = you (plural) made
yapmışlar = they made

The suffix -miş is at the same time the to be-suffix in the undefined past:
büyükmüş = he/she/it was big

When ending on a vowel you have to insert an y:
hastaymış = he/she/it was ill

To have in the undefined past:
Arabası varmış. = He/she/it had a car.
Arabası yokmuş. = He/she/it hadn’t a car.

9.2 NEGATION OF UNDEFINED PAST

For negating the suffix you need to insert once again -ma/-me in before the suffix –miş:

bilmemişim = I didn’t (wasn’t supposed to) know
bilmemişsin = you didn’t know
bilmemiş = he/she/it didn’t know
bilmemişiz = we didn’t know
bilmemişsiniz = you (plural) didn’t know
bilmemişler = they didn’t know

yapmamışım = I didn’t (wasn’t supposed to) make
yapmamışsın = you didn’t make
yapmamış = he/she/it didn’t make
yapmamışız = we didn’t make
yapmamışsınız = you didn’t make
yapmamışler = they didn’t make

Remember: "to be" is negated with değil:
büyük değilmiş =he/she/it wasn’t big (... wasn't supposed to be big)