Turkish -mış Participle: broken, cooked, frozen
How the Turkish -mış participle turns a verb into an adjective for a completed state — kırılmış cam "broken glass", pişmiş yemek "cooked food" — its four-way vowel harmony, why it triggers no consonant softening, and how it differs from the finite -miş reported past.
Ekle ·
Added to a verb stem, this participle names the state a completed action leaves behind — broken glass, cooked food — and it stands in front of the noun it describes, just like an adjective.
What this participle marks
The suffix builds an adjective out of a verb, and that adjective names a completed state — something the action has already brought about. kırılmış cam is "broken glass", pişmiş yemek is "cooked food", donmuş et is "frozen meat". In each one the verb's action is over, and its result is what the word now describes.
Working as an ordinary adjective, it takes no ending of its own and no agreement with the noun; it simply leans in front of it, the way a colour or a size word would. The noun keeps its plain shape — cam, yemek and et are untouched — and the participle carries the meaning "broken", "cooked", "frozen".
Four endings for four vowels
The suffix vowel copies the last vowel of the stem on both counts — front against back, and rounded against flat — so there are four spellings to choose from: -mış, -miş, -muş and -müş. The opening m never changes, so the vowel is the only thing that moves.
| Last stem vowel | Ending | Example |
|---|---|---|
| a · ı | -mış | yanmış |
| e · i | -miş | pişmiş |
| o · u | -muş | donmuş |
| ö · ü | -müş | sönmüş |
Match the vowel to the stem and the word falls out. pişmek has front flat e, so the ending is -miş and the form is pişmiş, not the back-voweled pişmuş. donmak has rounded o, so it takes -muş: donmuş, not donmüş. çürümek has front rounded ü, giving -müş: çürümüş, not çürümiş. yorulmak ends in u, so it is -muş again: yorulmuş, not yorulmış.
How the suffix joins the stem
The ending opens with the consonant m, so it fastens straight onto the verb stem with no linking vowel in between. çürümek drops its infinitive ending and takes the suffix directly: the result is çürümüş, the two pieces joined with nothing added at the seam.
A suffix that opened with a vowel could soften a stem-final p, ç, t or k, voicing it before the vowel. This one opens with a consonant, so the stem's last sound stays exactly as it is: geçmek keeps its final consonant unchanged in geçmiş, with nothing voiced where the two parts meet.
Five verbs worked through
Each of these pairs a verb with the state its action leaves. Read every one as the finished result: something has broken, cooked, tired, rotted or gone out, and the word now names that condition.
| Turkish | Parts | English |
|---|---|---|
| kırılmış | kırıl + mış | broken, shattered |
| pişmiş | piş + miş | cooked, done |
| yorulmuş | yorul + muş | tired, worn out |
| çürümüş | çürü + müş | rotted, decayed |
| sönmüş | sön + müş | gone out, extinguished |
Adjective or full sentence
The same word does two different jobs depending on where it stands. In front of a noun it is this participle, an adjective: pişmiş yemek is "cooked food". Standing on its own at the end of a clause, with the noun as its subject, the very same form is a finite verb — the reported, evidential past: Yemek pişmiş means "the food has cooked", or "the food is apparently done", a whole sentence rather than a label.
- pişmiş yemek — "cooked food": the participle leans on a following noun and describes it.
- Yemek pişmiş — "the food has cooked": a complete clause, the same form standing as its predicate.
- yorulmuş — "tired": the participle, ready to stand before a noun.
- Çocuk yorulmuş — "the child has got tired": again a full clause, not a modifier.
| Turkish | Parts | English |
|---|---|---|
| pişmiş | piş + miş | cooked / has cooked |
| yorulmuş | yorul + muş | tired / has got tired |
Standing in front of a noun
In use the participle sits directly before the noun it modifies, with no article and no agreement: kırılmış cam "broken glass", pişmiş yemek "cooked food", yanmış ekmek "burnt bread", donmuş et "frozen meat", sönmüş mum "a burnt-out candle". The noun stays in its plain form and the participle carries the description.
| Turkish | Parts | English |
|---|---|---|
| kırılmış | kırıl + mış | broken |
| pişmiş | piş + miş | cooked |
| donmuş | don + muş | frozen |
When a participle becomes a word
A handful of these participles have settled into fixed words in their own right. geçmiş, from geçmek "to pass", is now the noun "the past" and the adjective "past", as in geçmiş zaman "past tense". okumuş, literally "having read", has come to mean "educated" or "learned" — an okumuş adam is "an educated man". The participle is still visible inside each, but the meaning has set.
| Turkish | Parts | English |
|---|---|---|
| geçmiş | geç + miş | the past; past (as in past tense) |
Frequently asked questions
- What is the -mış participle in Turkish?
- It is an adjective made from a verb: -mış added to a verb stem names the state that a completed action leaves behind. pişmiş yemek is "cooked food" and kırılmış cam is "broken glass". Like any adjective it stands in front of its noun and takes no ending of its own.
- Is pişmiş an adjective or a past tense?
- It can be either, and position decides. Before a noun it is the participle, an adjective: pişmiş yemek, "cooked food". Alone at the end of a clause it is the finite reported past: Yemek pişmiş, "the food has cooked". The form is identical; the job is not.
- When is it -mış and when -miş, -muş or -müş?
- Four-way vowel harmony picks the vowel from the stem's last one, while the m stays put. A front flat vowel gives -miş (pişmiş), a back flat one -mış (yanmış), a back rounded one -muş (donmuş), and a front rounded one -müş (sönmüş).
- Does the -mış participle come before or after the noun?
- Before it, always. Turkish adjectives precede their noun, and this participle is no different: donmuş et is "frozen meat" and sönmüş mum is "a candle that has gone out". The noun follows and keeps its plain form.