A2 · The future: “-ecek” · about 7 minutes
The future in “-ecek”
I will come
Stem, “-ecek”, person — for plans, predictions and promises.
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Words you will need2
They appear in this topic’s examples and exercises and are new at this point on the learning path.
- partiparty
- geleceknext, coming
Understand
Remember-ecek is the future — and before -im and -iz the k goes soft: geleceğim.
- When
- Before the past
- The past
- Past linked to the present
- The present
- The future
- Completed in the future
The future — What is still to come — promised, planned or merely guessed at.
- Signal words
- yarın
- gelecek hafta
- seneye
- yakında
- bir gün
The form
How the forms are built
Each row gives the meaning first, then the form in Turkish. The colours show what changes from one form to the next.
stem (regular) tense marker person ending
| I will come | (ben) geleceğim |
| you will come | (sen) geleceksin |
| he, she will come | (o) gelecek |
| we will come | (biz) geleceğiz |
| you will come (plural, polite) | (siz) geleceksiniz |
| they will come | (onlar) gelecekler |
| I will read | (ben) okuyacağım |
| you will read | (sen) okuyacaksın |
| he, she will read | (o) okuyacak |
| we will read | (biz) okuyacağız |
| you will read (plural, polite) | (siz) okuyacaksınız |
| they will read | (onlar) okuyacaklar |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is about
-ecek/-acak says what is going to happen.
Yarın yağmur yağacak.It will rain tomorrow.
Before -im and -iz the k becomes ğ.
Yarın sana geleceğim.I’ll come and see you tomorrow.
After a vowel a y goes in.
Bu kitabı tatilde okuyacağım.I am going to read this book on holiday.
The negative takes -me-/-ma- plus y.
Bu akşam çıkmayacağız.We are not going out this evening.
The question: mi with the person ending.
Partiye gelecek misin?Are you coming to the party?
Example sentences
Gelecek hafta İzmir'e gideceğiz.Next week we are going to İzmir.
Merak etme, her şey düzelecek.Don’t worry, everything will be all right.
Ayşe seneye üniversiteyi bitirecek.Ayşe will finish university next year.
6 more example sentences
Akşam ne yiyeceğiz?What are we going to eat this evening?
Onlar bizi beklemeyecekler.They will not wait for us.
Seni yarın arayacağım.I’ll call you tomorrow.
Film saat dokuzda başlayacak.The film starts at nine o’clock.
Ne diyeceksin?What are you going to say?
Toplantı uzun sürecek mi?Will the meeting take long?
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
In fast speech the future is often clipped (gelicem), and when writing, the k then tends to stay: gelecekim. Between two vowels, though, the k becomes ğ, just as çocuk becomes çocuğum.
Quick check
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Practise
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The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
With -ecek or -acak you say what is going to happen: plans (Gelecek hafta İzmir'e gideceğiz.), predictions (Yarın yağmur yağacak.) and promises (Seni arayacağım. “I’ll call you.”). Where English chooses between “will” and “going to”, Turkish uses this one form. The ending follows the two-way vowel harmony: gelecek, yapacak.
The person endings are -im, -sin, nothing, -iz, -siniz, -ler. Before -im and -iz the k stands between two vowels and becomes ğ: geleceğim, geleceğiz. In the other persons it stays: geleceksin, gelecek, geleceksiniz, gelecekler.
If the stem ends in a vowel, a y goes in between: okuyacak, bekleyecek. With demek and yemek the e becomes i: diyecek, yiyecek. gitmek and etmek soften as always: gidecek, edecek.
The negative takes -me-/-ma- plus y: gelmeyecek, yapmayacağım — no “won’t”, just one more syllable. The question uses the separate particle, which carries the person: Gelecek misin? “Are you coming?” — Gelecek miyim?
A closer look
Spoken, it sounds shorter
In quick speech the future gets worn down a lot; you will hear forms like gelicem or yapcaz, much as English “going to” becomes “gonna”. You should understand them, but always write the full form: geleceğim, yapacağız.
“-iyor” or “-ecek” for plans?
Yarın Ankara'ya gidiyorum sounds like a fixed arrangement — the ticket is bought — exactly like English “I’m going to Ankara tomorrow”. Yarın Ankara'ya gideceğim sounds like an intention, “I will go”. Often both are right.
Worth knowing2
Worth knowing
Compared with English
English has several ways to talk about the future — “will”, “going to”, the present continuous — and learners agonise over which one. Turkish has one ending and uses it far more freely, above all for predictions: anyone talking about the weather uses -ecek.
Yarın hava güzel olacak.The weather will be nice tomorrow.
Worth knowing
The same word for “next”
gelecek also means “coming, next” and “the future”: gelecek hafta“next week”gelecek ay“next month”
Gelecek ay taşınacağız.We are moving next month.
The verbs on this page, in every form: gelmek · gitmek · yemek · beklemek · okumak · yağmak · bitirmek