B1 · The future: “-ecek” · about 7 minutes
Yesterday’s future: “-ecekti”
I was going to, I nearly
Planned but did not happen — or very nearly happened.
Do you know this already?
“New to me”: the explanation first, then practice. “Test myself”: 3 short questions – get at least two right and you go straight to the harder exercises.
Words you will need4
They appear in this topic’s examples and exercises and are new at this point on the learning path.
- neredeysealmost, nearly
- aslındaactually, in fact
- demekto say; to mean
- düşmekto fall
Understand
Remember-ecekti is yesterday’s future: planned, but it did not happen.
- When
Time in name only — A future form for a guess, a past form for politeness: the label says nothing about when.
- Signal words
- ama
- neredeyse
- aslında
- tam
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 was going to come | (ben) gelecektim |
| you were going to come | (sen) gelecektin |
| he, she was going to come | (o) gelecekti |
| we were going to come | (biz) gelecektik |
| you were going to come (plural, polite) | (siz) gelecektiniz |
| they were going to come | (onlar) geleceklerdi |
| I was going to do | (ben) yapacaktım |
| you were going to do | (sen) yapacaktın |
| he, she was going to do | (o) yapacaktı |
| we were going to do | (biz) yapacaktık |
| you were going to do (plural, polite) | (siz) yapacaktınız |
| they were going to do | (onlar) yapacaklardı |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it
-ecekti says what was planned and did not happen.
Sana yazacaktım ama unuttum.I was going to write to you, but I forgot.
It is -ecek with the past -ti.
Bu yaz İtalya'ya gidecektik.We were going to go to Italy this summer.
In the third person plural -ler comes before -di.
Onlar da geleceklerdi.They were going to come too.
With neredeyse it means “nearly”.
Neredeyse treni kaçıracaktım.I nearly missed the train.
In the negative it means “I was not going to”.
Aslında bugün çalışmayacaktım.Actually I was not going to work today.
Example sentences
Seni arayacaktım, telefonum bozuldu.I was going to call you, my phone broke.
Toplantı saat üçte başlayacaktı.The meeting was supposed to start at three.
Tam çıkacaktım ki yağmur başladı.I was just about to leave when it started to rain.
6 more example sentences
Ayşe bize yardım edecekti ama hastalandı.Ayşe was going to help us, but she fell ill.
Ne diyecektin?What were you going to say?
Neredeyse düşecektim.I nearly fell.
Bu evi satmayacaktık ama başka çaremiz yoktu.We were not going to sell this house, but we had no other choice.
Yarın gelecek miydin?Were you going to come tomorrow?
Otobüs on dakika önce gelecekti.The bus should have come ten minutes ago.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
English “I was going to call” has its past in “was”, and the “going to” looks ahead. Carry over only the second half and you get the plain future: Dün seni arayacağım — “Yesterday I will call you”. The past has to go on the future ending as well: arayacaktım.
Quick check
A warm-up: 2 questions, answered straight away. They do not count towards your progress.
Practise
9 exercises on this topic. Your answers are checked in the browser; none of them leaves your device.
Now write it yourself9 sentences on this topic, typed and checked instantly.
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The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
-ecekti is the future seen from a point in the past: back then something was about to happen. Usually it then did not: Sana yazacaktım ama unuttum. “I was going to write to you, but I forgot.” It is exactly English “was going to”.
It is built from two parts you know: -ecek and the past -ti, with the short person endings -m, -n, nothing, -k, -niz: gelecektim, gelecektin, gelecekti, gelecektik, gelecektiniz. In the third person plural -ler comes before the past: geleceklerdi. It is t and not d because the k before it is voiceless.
It also means “nearly”: Neredeyse düşecektim. “I nearly fell.” And it reports a plan without saying whether it worked out: Toplantı saat üçte başlayacaktı. “The meeting was supposed to start at three.”
In the negative it means “I was not going to”: gelmeyecektim. The question takes miydi: Gelecek miydin? “Were you going to come?”
A closer look
“-ecekti” or “istedim”?
Gelmek istedim means “I wanted to come” in the sense of a wish. Gelecektim says it was planned or about to happen, “I was going to come”. Often both fit; only for “nearly” does -ecekti alone work.
After an unreal condition
After a condition that was not met, -ecekti stands for “would have”: Bilseydim, gelecektim. “If I had known, I would have come.” The condition itself is in the mood section.
Worth knowing2
Worth knowing
Compared with English
English needs a different phrase each time: “I was going to”, “it was supposed to”, “I nearly”, “he should have”. Turkish says all of them with one ending.
Gelecektim. Gelecekti. Neredeyse düşecektim.I was going to come. He was supposed to come. I nearly fell.
Worth knowing
Nothing new, just combined
You know the past -ti with the short person endings from “I was”: hastaydım, evdeydik. Here it is attached to -ecek instead of a noun.
Hastaydım, o yüzden gelmeyecektim.I was ill, so I was not going to come.
The verbs on this page, in every form: başlamak · unutmak