Turkish -ip Suffix: Linking Verbs Explained
How the Turkish converb -ip chains verbs that share one subject — the four-way vowel harmony behind -ıp, -ip, -up and -üp, the buffer -y- in okuyup, the t-to-d softening in gidip, why it takes no tense or person of its own, and the whether-or-not and doubled-verb patterns.
Ekle ·
This converb chains verbs that share one subject: it hangs off a bare verb stem, carries no tense or person of its own, and lets the final verb of the chain cover the whole run of actions.
What the linking converb does
Turkish has an economical way to string actions together. The linking converb hangs off a bare verb stem and hands the tense and person over to the last verb in the chain, which then speaks for every action in it. kalkıp gitti is "he got up and left" — one past ending, on gitti, doing the work for kalkıp too.
It is the compact stand-in for a repeated ve "and" plus a repeated tense. Where a fuller sentence would spell out two finite verbs, this converb folds the first onto a bare stem and lets the last one finish the thought for both.
Vowel harmony picks the ending
Because the ending opens with a high vowel, that vowel harmonises with the stem's last vowel on both axes Turkish tracks — front or back, and rounded or unrounded. After the back unrounded stem of kalkıp the ending is -ıp; after the front unrounded stem of gidip it is -ip; after the back rounded stem of oturup it is -up; and after the front rounded stem of gülüp it is -üp.
| Last stem vowel | After a consonant | After a vowel |
|---|---|---|
| a · ı | -ıp | -yıp |
| e · i | -ip | -yip |
| o · u | -up | -yup |
| ö · ü | -üp | -yüp |
Rounding counts here, not only the front-back split, so the ending comes in four shapes where a two-way suffix such as the dative has just two. The grid's third column is the shape after a vowel-final stem, worked out in the next section.
Two changes at the seam
Because the ending begins with a vowel, a stem that ends in a voiceless p, ç, t or k softens that consonant. The stem of gitmek "to go" ends in t, and before the ending that t softens to d, giving gidip. It is the same softening the accusative and dative already showed.
When the stem ends in a vowel instead, a buffer -y- slips in so the two vowels never meet. okumak "to read" ends in a vowel, so its converb is okuyup, with the glide sitting between the stem and the ending.
| Turkish | Parts | English |
|---|---|---|
| gidip | gid + ip | and go, having gone |
| okuyup | oku + y + up | and read, having read |
Chaining actions together
Each of these hangs a first action on a bare verb stem and waits for a finite verb to close the chain and lend it a tense.
| Turkish | Parts | English |
|---|---|---|
| kalkıp | kalk + ıp | getting up, and got up |
| alıp | al + ıp | taking, and took |
| oturup | otur + up | sitting down, and sat down |
| gülüp | gül + üp | laughing, and laughed |
In a real sentence each leans on a following verb that carries the tense for both halves: kalkıp gitti is "he got up and left", alıp verdi "he took it and gave it back", oturup bekledik "we sat down and waited", and gülüp geçti "he laughed it off". The one past ending sits on gitti, verdi, bekledik or geçti alone.
It carries no tense of its own
The whole point of the converb is that it carries no tense and no person of its own; the last verb supplies both. In kalkıp gitti the past tense lives on gitti alone, while kalkıp stays bare and timeless.
The defining mistake is to stack a finite ending onto the converb itself. kalkıptı, with a past ending glued to the -ip form, is not Turkish, and neither is oturuptuk, with a person ending on it. Tense and person belong on the final verb of the chain, never on the -ip form.
One subject for the whole chain
An -ip chain holds together only when every verb in it shares one subject. The person who does alıp is the same person who does whatever comes next, which is why alıp verdi can only describe a single actor taking something and then giving it. Where the two actions have different subjects, this converb cannot link them, and the sentence needs a full second clause.
| Turkish | Parts | English |
|---|---|---|
| alıp | al + ıp | taking, and took |
| oturup | otur + up | sitting down, and sat down |
oturup bekledik carries this too: "we sat down and waited" is one "we" running straight through both verbs, named once and covering the pair.
The whether-or-not frame
Set against its own negative, the -ip form drives a fixed "whether ... or not" pattern. olup olmadığını — literally "its being and its not-being" — is how Turkish packs "whether or not something is so" into a single object. The -ip form olup carries the affirmative side, its negative counterpart the other, and the sentence's own ending lands further along.
| Turkish | Parts | English |
|---|---|---|
| olup | ol + up | being, whether it is |
Doubling for repeated action
Doubling a single -ip form turns it into a marker of action repeated over and over. durup durup — durup said twice — means "again and again", "every so often". Here the repetition is the meaning: one durup is just "stopping", while the doubled pair says the action keeps coming back.
| Turkish | Parts | English |
|---|---|---|
| durup | dur + up | stopping; again and again when doubled |
Frequently asked questions
- What does the -ip suffix do?
- It links two or more verbs that share one subject into a single chain. The -ip form itself carries no tense and no person; the last verb of the chain supplies both and speaks for the whole sequence. kalkıp gitti is "he got up and left", with the past tense sitting only on gitti.
- Do the verbs joined by -ip need the same subject?
- Yes. Every verb in an -ip chain must share one subject, so alıp verdi can only mean that a single person took something and gave it. When the subjects differ, Turkish uses a full second clause rather than this converb.
- Can the -ip form take a tense or a personal ending?
- No, and doing so is the defining error. Forms such as kalkıptı or oturuptuk, with a tense or person ending stacked on the converb, are not Turkish. Tense and person belong on the final verb of the chain, which covers the -ip form as well.
- What is the difference between -ip and ve?
- ve is the ordinary word "and", joining two full verbs that each keep their own tense. -ip is the compact converb that stands in for a repeated ve and a repeated tense together: it folds the first verb onto a bare stem and lets the last one carry the tense, as in kalkıp gitti for "he got up and left".