I Have a Problem

Ajda Pekkan (Source: youtube.com)

Lesson 33 | -dirmek Causitive Verbs

Turkish morphology is extraordinarily productive, and as we've seen throughout these early lessons, the various affixes within the Turkish language allow us to create some pretty interesting words. In this lesson, we'll focus on the -dirmek verbal tense, which allows us to create verbs with a "causitive" meaning sometimes difficult to express in English.

The singer in this lesson is Ajda Pekkan, who began performing in her teens during the 1960s and has refused to relinquish her youth through the intervening decades. She is one of the most commercially successful recording artists in Turkey, and has appeared in numerous films. The song, "Dert Bende (I have a Problem)," has been performed by many famous singers from the 1970s and while sometimes attirubted to Orhan Gencebay, is in fact the composition of Vedat Yıldırımbora.

In this song, I would like to highlight the -dirmek verbs, which we have seen plenty of and you should be able to easily recognize going forward. In the song we have three -dirmek verbs that give a causative meaning to a more basic Turkish verb. By causative, we mean that the verb is not merely "to do" but "to make someone or something do." Here are our examples in this song:

Verb	Meaning	Causative	Meaning
ölmek	to die	öldürmek	to kill
gülmek	to smile, laugh	güldürmek	to make smile/laugh
ağlamak	to cry	ağlatmak	to make cry

As you can see, the causative tense has two essential forms, the default being -dirmek and the alternate form being -tmek for verb stems that end in a vowel or sometimes liquid consonants like "r" and "l". This includes, much to our chagrin verbs that are already causative. Here are some more examples of -dirmek and -tmek:

Verb	Meaning	Causative	Meaning
yapmak	to do	yaptırmak	to make/have do
tanışmak	to meet, get to know	tanıştırmak	to introduce
donmak	to freeze (reflexive)	dondurmak	to freeze/make freeze
acımak	to hurt (reflexive)	acıtmak	to hurt, injure
anlamak	to understand	anlatmak	to explain
doğrulmak	to straighten (reflexive)	doğrultmak	to straighten out/correct

As you can see, while this affix is sometimes used to produce verbs for which there are equivalents in English, in other cases, it is used more productively to create meanings for a which a simple translation is more difficult. And the -dirmek ending can be tacked onto just about any verb stem to create meaning. Give it a try when you're practicing your own Turkish and see how people will magically understand what you mean!


Vocabulary


dert - pain, problem (from Persian)
derman - here: cure, also strength
ferman - control
leke - stain (noun)
kor - ember
yokluk - absence

öldürmek - to kill, literally to make die
güldürmek - to make smile, laugh, to please
ağlatmak - to make cry

ise de - even if

Ajda Pekkan - Dert Bende Derman Sende

Dert bende derman sende
I have the trouble, you have the cure
Aşk bende ferman sende
I have love, and you have the control
Öldüren güldüren / her gün ağlatan kalp sende
You have a heart that kills, makes me laugh, and makes me cry everyday
Mevsimler gelip geçse de
Even if the seasons come and go
Aşk beni benden etse de
Even if love makes me your slave
Dünyada hayat bitse de
Even if life ends in this world
Yine ölümsüz aşk bende
Nevertheless, I have an immortal love

İstemem ayrılık boynumu büksün
I don't want separation to abase me
İstemem aşkıma leke sürülsün
I don't want my love to be stained
Ben rüyamda bile yalnız seni sevdim
Even in my dreams, I've only loved you
İstemem baharda yaprak dökülsün
I don't want the leaves to fall in the spring
Aşkın alevse hasretin bir kor
If loving you is a fire, missing you is an ember
Senin yokluğunu kalbime sor
As my heart about your absence
Dünyaya seninle gelmiş gibiyim
It's like I came into the world with you
Sensiz yaşamayı düşünmek çok zor
It is very hard to think about living without you

What We Did Under that Tree

A tree in Nantes, France (Source: Chris Gratien)

Lesson 21 | -dik Adjectival Participle

In our endless exploration of Turkish verbs, we move to one of the most exciting linguistic features of Turkish: the super-useful -dik ending.

Even if you're not into participles, will be hard to resist the -dik ending after the following song, performed by Emel Sayın. Born to a family of immigrants from the Balkans, Emel Sayın rose to stardom during the 1970s, appearing in numerous films and performing classic songs such as this composition by Yusuf Nalkesen, who like Sayın was from a family that emigrated from Macedonia following the First World War.

This song centers around a tree and the many layers of memory embedded in its bark and the earth beneath it. In order to describe that tree and the events that it witnessed, the -dik ending is employed.

The -dik ending has a function similar to English or French past participles but in effects takes the place of relative clauses. In Lesson 9, we learned about the -en/an suffix that gives the connotation of "the one who/that does" a certain action. "Giden" is "the one that goes". "Gelen" is "the one who comes" and so forth. Like -en, -dik is has a meaning similar to "that" or "which" and can form words that serve as both adjectives and nouns. The difference is that whereas -en is "the doer", -dik is for "the one that is done". 

What on earth does this mean? Let's start with an example from the song. One of the things that Emel and her beloved did under that tree is inscribe a heart with their names and a date into the bark. To describe that heart she says "çizdiğimiz o kalp" or "that heart we drew". Let's look at "çizdiğimiz kalp". It is made from "çizmek" meaning "to draw" and a -dik suffix, in this case one for the first person plural "biz (we)". I've got a list of conjugations below. But before explaining that, let's look at the meaning. We have the heart or "kalp" and "çizdiğimiz" modifies it. If it was "çizen", then it would be "the heart that draws". But Emel wants to say "that heart that we drew", i.e. the heart is the direct object of the sentence. 

Now to hammer this down, let's focus on the main subject of the song: the tree. It is not a big tree, or a wide tree, or an old tree. It is defined by the actions of Emel and her beloved. Therefore, we need much more than a mere adjective. We need the equivalent of a relative clause, and unfortunately there is no one to one equivalent for "that". 

Look at the first verse of the song, and these three lines:

Gölgesinde mevsimler boyu oturduğumuz
Hep el ele vererek hayâller kurduğumuz
Kimi üzgün, kimi gün neşeyle dolduğumuz

These three sentences end with three verbs that have the -dik suffix: "oturmak (to sit)", "hayal kurmak (to dream/fantasize)", "dolmak (to fill/be full)".

These are all part of one really long sentence involving a tree. But let's imagine they are three separate sentences as follows:

Gölgesinde mevsimler boyu oturduk.
We sat throughout the seasons in its shade.
Hep el ele vererek hayâller kurduk.
We daydreamed hand in hand.
Kimi üzgün, gün kimi neşeyle dolduk.
We were sometimes said and sometimes full of happiness.

The -dik endings on the end of these verbs, transforms them all to modify the word that comes immediately after in the fourth line: "o ağaç (that tree)".

You are probably going to murder me when you see in following lessons that this is not the only use of the -dik ending, because why limit ourselves like that? And I can't even imagine what you will do when you realize that there is another ending in Turkish that performs a function similar to that of -dik in this song.

For now, learn to recognize it's meaning and don't worry about trying to use it until you get used to its functions. Here is what -dik looks like for different verbs and pronouns:

Verb	Ben	Sen	O	Biz	Siz	Onlar
oturmak (to sit)	oturduğum	oturduğun	oturduğu	oturduğumuz	oturduğunuz	oturdukları
çizmek (to draw)	çizdiğim	çizdiğin	çizdiği	çizdiğimiz	çizdiğiniz	çizdikleri
söylemek (to say)	söylediğim	söylediğin	söylediği	söylediğimiz	söylediğiniz	söyledikleri
anlamak (to understand)	anladığım	anladığın	anladığı	anladığımız	anladığınız	anladıkları
bilmek (to know)	bildiğim	bildiğin	bildiği	bildiğimiz	bildiğiniz	bildikleri
atmak (to throw)	attığım	attığın	attığı	attığımız	attığınız	attıkları

Vocabulary


gölge - shadow, shade
boy - length, duration, height
üzgün - sad
neşe - happiness
yerli yerinde - in its proper place
tarih - date, also history

hayâl kurmak - to daydream
dolmak - to fill, to be full
bilmem - I don't know
çizmek - to draw
çizdiğimiz kalp - the heart we drew
durmak - to stop, to stand, to remain
de - also

Emel Sayın - O Ağacın Altını

Gölgesinde mevsimler boyu oturduğumuz
That we sat in its shade throughout the seasons
Hep el ele vererek hayâller kurduğumuz
Where we always daydreamed hand in hand
Kimi üzgün, kimi gün neşeyle dolduğumuz
Where we were filled some days with sadness and some with joy
O ağacın altını şimdi anıyor musun
Do you remember (being) under that tree now?
O ağacın altını şimdi anıyor musun?

The main thing to understand about this verse is that it is a single sentence comprised of verbs with -dik endings that modify the noun "o ağaç (that tree)". Those three sentences above all took place in a single place, which is "under that tree (o ağacın altı)". And thus she asks if he remembers "under it (altı)".

O güzel günler için bilmem
For those beautiful days, I don't know
Bilmem, bilmem, bilmem yanıyor musun?
I don't know, I don't know, I don't know are you burning (with regret)?

"Yanmak" has several  meanings related to intense feeling, but to burn for something in the past generally comes with the meaning of regret.

Attığımız tarih de, çizdiğimiz o kalp de
The date that we put and the heart that we drew
Silinmemiş / duruyor hepsi yerli yerinde
were not erased. It all remains where we left it (literally 'in its proper place')
Ben şarkılar söylerdim yatarken dizlerinde
I used to sing songs while laying on your knees
O ağacın altını şimdi anıyor musun
O güzel günler için bilmem yanıyor musun

Review this lesson's vocab before moving on to Lesson 22: Isn't This Enough?.

Seasons Past

Snow over Kurtuluş, Istanbul (Source: Chris Gratien)

Lesson 3 | -di Simple Past

Singer/songwriters like Yaşar Kurt from Lesson 1 make songs with the purpose of expressing an idea. But sometimes you just want to make a song, and the idea comes after. In these cases a safe strategy is to grab a feeling and mix it with some nature imagery. Spread it across time, and you've got yourself an instant classic like this piece of sanat music from Sadettin Öktenay.

Gönül Yazar

"Ne birleştik, ne ayrıldık" is a composition that has been performed by many singers in the sanat music genre, a broadly-defined kind of modern classical music that combines old Ottoman styles with pop music sensibilities. The performer in this lesson is Gönül Yazar, a singer from İzmir who was popular during the 1970s.

This song is packed with synonyms. We have three words related to love (sevgi / aşk / sevda). I can't explain the difference between these words; in part, it is a matter of variety. But each has its own history, each of which may deserve an entire article. This song also have many words about the weather and seasons that will come in handy later. More importantly, this song introduces the simple past tense -di ending called "geçmiş zamanı" using the verb it is named after: geçmek or "to pass."

Here's a conjugation of geçmek in the simple past tense:

Ben geçtim | Sen geçtin | O geçti | Biz geçtik | Siz geçtiniz | Onlar geçtiler

Note that the "d" in the -di ending becomes a "t" because the preceding letter "ç" is an unvoiced consonant. In order to show more examples of the past tense, here are some of the verbs from Lesson 2 conjugated with the -di ending.

Verb	Ben	Sen	O	Biz	Siz	Onlar
gelmek (to come)	geldim	geldin	geldi	geldik	geldiniz	geldiler
gitmek (to go)	gittim	gittin	gitti	gittik	gittiniz	gittiler
ölmek (to die)	öldüm	öldün	öldü	öldük	öldünüz	öldüler
konuşmak (to speak)	konuştum	konuştun	konuştu	konuştuk	konuştunuz	konuştular
görüşmek (to meet)	görüştüm	görüştün	görüştü	görüştük	görüştünüz	görüştüler
söylemek (to say)	söyledim	söyledin	söyledi	söyledik	söylediniz	söylediler
yaşamak (to live)	yaşadım	yaşadın	yaşadı	yaşadık	yaşadınız	yaşadılar
oynamak (to play/dance)	oynadım	oynadın	oynadı	oynadık	oynadınız	oynadılar

Follow along with the song and try to pick up the very practical vocabulary contained within. You'll notice that sometimes the line of a song does not make a complete sentence, and that sentence continues into the next line. That's why we need to look for the verbs in order to get the complete sentences, and in this case, I've put the verbs in bold below. 

Vocabulary


Click on the words to hear the pronunciation. Vocab audio courtesy of Seçil Yılmaz



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geçmek - to pass
üst - above, over (noun)
üstünden geçmek (time) - for an amount of time to pass since something

sevgi - love
aşk - love
sevda - love
sene - year
mevsim - season
ay - month, moon
rüya - dream
hülya - daydream
yağmur - rain
dolu - hail
kar - snow
kış - winter
bahar - spring
yaz - summer
hayat - life
ömür - lifetime
yaş - age, stage of life

Gönül Yazar - Ne Birleştik Ne Ayrıldık


Listen to the song by clicking the play button above

Sevgimizin aşkımızın üstünden / sene geçti, mevsim geçti, ay geçti
Since our love, since our affection / years passed, seasons passed, months passed

Rüyamızın hülyamızın üstünden / yağmur geçti, dolu geçti, kar geçti
Since our dreams, since our daydreams / rain passed, hail passed, snow passed

Ne birleştik ne ayrıldık biz senle
We have neither united nor separated 

"Ne (noun/verb) ne (noun/verb)" is used to express the concept of "neither/nor."

Kış geçti, bahar geçti, yaz geçti
Winter passed, spring passed, summer passed

The word for fall is "sonbahar" or "the final spring". "Güz" is also used in the meaning of autumn.

Bu aşkın bu sevdanın üstünden
Since this love, since this passion
Hayat geçti, ömür geçti, yaş geçti
A life has passed, a lifetime has passed, an age has passed

If you memorize this song, you'll be well-equipped to tackle our next lesson, which delves more into the past: Lesson 4: The Past is a Wound. First, test your knowledge of this lesson's vocabulary with the quiz below.