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Future Tense
-ecek

The future -ecek tense roughly corresponds to English will happen, going to happen, or shall happen. More precisely, -ecek conveys the definite intention or commitment of the speaker. In addition to expressing what will happen, it indicates what the speaker wants to happen.

Turkish	English
Ben ögreneceğim.	I am going to study.
Koşacaksın.	You will run.
Gidecek miyiz?	Will we go?
Almayacaklar.	They will not buy.

Forming the Future Tense

To form the future tense, add -ecek to the verb stem follwed by the personal suffix. You can include the personal pronoun (ben, sen, etc.) before the verb, but since the subject is encapsulated in the personal suffix, it is usually omitted unless deliberately emphasizing who will the action. Take gelmek (to come), for example:

Stem + ecek	Personal Suffix	Future	English
gelecek	im	geleceğim	I will come.
gelecek	sin	geleceksin	You will come.
gelecek	-	gelecek	He/she/it will come.
gelecek	iz	geleceğiz	We will come.
gelecek	siniz	geleceksiniz	You will come. (plural or polite)
gelecek	ler	gelecekler	They will come.

Consonant mutation. Since the final k of -ecek is followed by a vowel in the I and We conjugations, the k morphs into ğ in these cases.

gelecekim
geleceğim
yapacakız
yapacağız

Vowel harmony. The -ecek suffix follows e-type vowel harmony and must harmonize with the final vowel in the verb stem. The two forms, then, are -ecek and -acak.

olacak
güleceksin
alacağız
seyretecek

Vowel conflict. Since -ecek begins with a vowel, it must be separated from verb stems that end in a vowel. We do this by adding a buffer y between the stem and -ecek.

Stem	Future + Personal	Turkish	English
bekle	eceksin	bekleeceksin	You will wait.
bekle	eceksin	bekleyeceksin	You will wait.
başla	acağız	başlayacağız	We will start.
ye	eceğim	yiyeceğim (irregular)	I will eat.

Negative

To form the future negative tense (e.g. I will not, you're not going to), add the negative -me suffix after the verb stem. Since the negative suffix ends with a vowel, a buffer y will always sit between the negative and future suffixes.

Stem	Negative	Future + Personal	Turkish	English
sat	ma	acaklar	satmaacaklar	They will not sell.
sat	ma	acaklar	satmayacaklar	They will not sell.
öde	me	eceksiniz	ödemeyeceksiniz	You will not pay.
koş	ma	acağız	koşmayacağız	We will not run.

Questions

Future tense questions are formed by making a separate word from the mi question marker and personal suffix. Add -ecek to the verb stem as usual, followed by this new question word. Notice that the first part of this construction is the same for all cases and that the vowel conflict that forced k to change to ğ is no longer present. Don't forget that buffer y is needed in the question words formed in the I and We cases.

Stem + Future	Question	Personal	Turkish	English
satacak	mı	ım	satacak mıyım?	Will I sell?
ödeyecek	mi	sin	ödeyecek misin?	Will you pay?
koşacak	mı	-	koşacak mı?	Will he run?
verecek	mi	iz	verecek miyiz?	Will we give?

As with many tenses, the third person plural is irregular and the -ler is added after -ecek instead of after the question marker.

Stem + Future	Personal	Question	Turkish	English
gelecek	ler	mi	gelecekler mi?	Will they come?
çalışacak	lar	mı	çalışacaklar mı?	Will they work?

Form a negative question by adding in the -me negative suffix where you would expect.

Stem	Negative	Future	Question + Personal	Turkish	English
al	ma	acak	mısın	almayacak mısın?	Won't you buy?
sür	me	ecek	miyiz	sürmeyecek miyiz?	Won't we drive?

Pronunciation

In daily speech, the I and We forms of the future tense are almost always shortened. Instead of hearing -eceğim or -eceğiz, you will hear an elided -ecem or -ecez. The You form is also often shortened in a similar way.

Written	Spoken	English
alacağım	alacam	I will buy.
geleceğiz	gelecez	We will come.
koşacaksın	koşacan	You will run.
çalışmayacağız	çalışmayacaz	We will not work.

In casual written Turkish that you might find in email or on Facebook, future verbs may be written as they are spoken (i.e. gelecem, alacaz). Outside of extremely informal contexts, however, the full verb form will always be written out.

Alternative Future Expressions

In Turkish, as in English, there are actually many ways to convey action that will happen in the future. -ecek carries with it a strong connotation of intention, desire, or commitment - you should only use it for actions that the speaker is sure will happen.

Yarın geleceğim.
I will come tomorrow. (confident, certainly)

Ondan sonra calışmayacak.
After that, she will not work. (definitely)

Onu yapacaksın.
You will do it. (forceful, perhaps rude)

Turkish also uses the present continuous tense (-iyor) to express things that will happen. We do this in English, too: I am cooking this afternoon, We are running tomorrow. This tense doesn't carry the certainty and intention of -ecek and is used to make more indefinite statements about future events.

Yarın geliyorum.
I am coming tomorrow.

Ondan sonra calışmıyor.
She's not working after that.

The simple present (-er) can be used to express future events with absolute conviction. Think of these as promises.

Yarın giderim.
I am coming tomorrow. (I promise, I'm not the kind of person to not come so I will be there.)