A2 · Verb forms · about 7 minutes
Cannot with “-eme”
I can’t
In the negative of “can” the “bil” disappears — what is left is “-eme-”.
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 need2
They appear in this topic’s examples and exercises and are new at this point on the learning path.
- maalesefunfortunately
- yüzmekto swim
Understand
Remember“Can’t” without bil: yapamam, gelemedim, okuyamıyorum.
- Signal words
- maalesef
- hiç
- ama
- bugün
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 negation question marker
| I can’t do | (ben) yapamam |
| you can’t do | (sen) yapamazsın |
| he, she can’t do | (o) yapamaz |
| we can’t do | (biz) yapamayız |
| you can’t do (plural, polite) | (siz) yapamazsınız |
| they can’t do | (onlar) yapamazlar |
| I can’t come (right now) | (ben) gelemiyorum |
| I couldn’t come | (ben) gelemedim |
| I can’t read | (ben) okuyamam |
| he, she can’t go | (o) gidemez |
| can’t you come? | (sen) gelemez misin? |
| he, she couldn’t sleep | (o) uyuyamadı |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is about
For “can’t”, -eme- or -ama- goes on the stem; bil drops.
Bugün gelemem, çok işim var.I can’t come today, I have a lot to do.
With -iyor the last e or a drops.
Seni duyamıyorum.I can’t hear you.
With -di it means “couldn’t”.
Anahtarı bulamadım.I couldn’t find the key.
After a vowel a y goes in.
Dün gece hiç uyuyamadım.I couldn’t sleep at all last night.
gelmem means “I won’t come”, gelemem “I can’t come”.
Gelmek istiyorum ama gelemem.I want to come, but I can’t.
Example sentences
Maalesef yarın gelemem.Unfortunately I can’t come tomorrow.
Bu yazıyı okuyamıyorum.I can’t read this handwriting.
Mehmet bu hafta işe gidemedi.Mehmet couldn’t go to work this week.
5 more example sentences
Bu kadar yemeği bitiremeyiz.We can’t finish this much food.
Neden uyuyamıyorsun?Why can’t you sleep?
Bu kutuyu tek başıma kaldıramam.I can’t lift this box on my own.
Otobüse yetişemedik.We didn’t make it to the bus.
Burada sigara içemezsiniz.You can’t smoke here.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
If you know gelebilirim, you negate it the way you negate any verb and add -me- after it: gelebilmem. That is wrong. The negative of “can” has its own short form without bil: gelemem — a bit like English “can” becoming “can’t” rather than “do not can”.
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.
Well done
How well do you know this topic?
This is filled in automatically after you practise. You can change it here at any time.
Next on the path: 48 · The past of “to be”Back to the learning path
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
The negative of “can” looks different from what you would expect after yapabilirim. The bil drops, and the stem takes -eme- or -ama-: yapamam“I can’t do it”gelemezsin“you can’t come” It is really an e or a plus the familiar negative -me-.
Then comes the tense. In the aorist: yapamam, yapamazsın, yapamaz, yapamayız, yapamazsınız, yapamazlar. With -iyor the last e drops: gelemiyorum “I can’t come (at the moment)”. With -di: gelemedim “I couldn’t come”. After a vowel a y goes in: okuyamam, uyuyamadım.
Keep three forms apart: gelmem “I won’t come” (I don’t want to), gelemem “I can’t come” and gelmeyebilirim “I may not come”.
A closer look
“might not”: -meyebil
If you put the negative before -ebil, you get a possibility: gelmeyebilirim “I might not come”. That is not “I can’t”, but “maybe not”.
Yarın gelmeyebilirim, sana haber veririm.I might not come tomorrow; I’ll let you know.
Worth knowing1
Worth knowing
Compared with English
“I can’t” is a separate word plus the verb in English. In Turkish both merge into one piece inside the verb, which you can recognise even when you do not know the verb: -ama-, -eme- means “can’t”.
Maalesef yardım edemem.Unfortunately I can’t help.
The verbs on this page, in every form: gelmek · istemek