The meaning and use

The aorist -Ir/-Ar is used to express general facts, polite requests and questions, probable situations, uncertain plans, guesses, habits, likes and dislikes. Here are some examples for each category.

General facts

1. Güneş doğudan doğar. ‘Sun rises from the east.’

2. Balık suda yaşar. ‘Fish lives in water.’

3. İki kere iki dört eder. ‘Two times two is four.’

4. Penguenler uçmaz. ‘Penguins do not fly.’

Polite requests and questions

1. Lütfen kapıyı açar mısınız? ‘Could you open the door?’

2. Lütfen tuzu verir misiniz? ‘Could you pass the salt?’

3. Benimle evlenir misin? ‘Will you marry me?’

Probable situations, uncertain plans

1. Yarın belki sinemaya gideriz. ‘Maybe we go to the movies tomorrow.’

2. Belki Selim de bizimle gelir. ‘Maybe Selim comes with us.’

Guesses

1. Sence bu sene dünya kupasını kim alır? ‘In your opinion, who gets the world cup this year?’

2. Annem bu elbiseyi beğenmez. ‘My mother wouldn't like this dress.’

Habits, likes, dislikes

1. Ben kahveyi şekerli içerim. ‘I drink coffee with sugar.’

2. Ben asla kahve içmem. ‘I never drink coffee.’

3. Ne tür filmlerden hoşlanırsınız? ‘What kind of movies do you like?’

4. Ne tür müzik seversiniz? ‘What kind of music do you like?’

The form

In contrast to the other tense markers, the aorist has a semi-irregular pattern, that is, there is a set of verbs that irregularly take -Ir rather than -Ar and you will need to memorize them. Here are the details of the aorist pattern.

1. Polysyllabic words ending in consonants take one of the variants of -Ir, which can appear as -ır, -ir, -ur, -ür due to I-type vowel harmony, e.g., pişir-ir, götür-ür, konuş-ur, çalış-ır.

2. Most monosyllabic verbs ending in consonants take one of the variants of -Ar. -Ar can appear as -er or -ar due to A-type vowel harmony, e.g., yap-ar, ser-er, koş-ar, ör-er, kır-ar, gir-er, sus-ar, gül-er.

3. Vowel-ending verbs take only -r, e.g., eri-r, söyle-r, uyu-r, atla-r.

4. Here is the irregular part. These thirteen verbs, although they are monosyllabic, take -Ir rather than -Ar. Most of them are l- or r- ending. Only the verb san- is n-ending: al-ır, bil-ir, bul-ur, dur-ur, gel-ir, gör-ür, kal-ır, ol-ur, öl-ür, san-ır, ver-ir, var-ır, vur-ur