Beginner ‑mış/miş/müş/muş grammar forms

Rumors and other reported speech

The most common usage of ‑mış is for repeating what you heard from someone else. For that reason, you will hear it often when people are repeating rumors or gossip. You can also find it in the headlines of news stories if the writer was not an eyewitness.

Examples
Tatile gitmişsin.
I heard you went on vacation.
(Title of a song by Tacettin Özcan)

55 gün yürümüşler.
They reportedly walked for 55 days.
(From the title of a news story)

Sahte hemşire 1.400 hastaya bakmış
A fake nurse reportedly cared for 1,400 patients.
(Title of news story)

Drawing conclusions based on evidence

Turkish speakers make a distinction between events that they personally witnessed and events that they learned about indirectly. That is why you cannot normally use the ‑mış ending on verbs to describe an event that you personally witnessed. If you do, it may be perceived either as deceitfulness or as poor grammar. However, the ‑mış ending does not always mean that the speaker is uncertain whether the event happened or not. The speaker may have seen clear evidence that an event happened, but if they did not witness it personally, they can use the ‑mış ending. This is especially common if the event was unexpected or surprising. Also, you can add the phrase, “demek ki” (“I suppose…”) to a sentence with ‑mış. When you say this, it is clear that you are making a guess or drawing a conclusion.

But there is a catch…

So it seems easy enough. But here is the tricky part: the ‑mış ending can only be used for drawing a conclusion if the evidence you are using is obvious to the person listening. In other words, if the other person does not see the evidence and you have not mentioned it, there is no way for them to know that you are making a guess. Instead, they will assume that you are using the ‑mış ending to mean that you heard it from someone else.

Examples
Uyumuşum!
I must have fallen asleep!
(A common thing to say after accidentally falling asleep)

Demek ki faydalı bir toplantı olmuş.
It looks like it was a helpful meeting.
(Title of news story)

2019 başlamış, ben kaçırmışım!
2019 has begun, I guess I missed it!
(Title of blog post about New Year’s resolutions)

Using the ‑mış ending for surprise

You can also use the ‑mış ending for showing surprise at something unexpected. There is overlap between this usage and the two usages above (rumors and conclusions). In other words, ‑mış is used especially in cases where the rumor or conclusion is surprising.

But once again, there is a catch…

There is one thing to note about this usage of the ‑mış ending, however. You can only use the ‑mış ending to show surprise for a short time after the event. That is, you can only use it as an immediate reaction to the situation that you were not expecting. But if you are talking about the situation long after the fact, you can not use the ‑mış ending to show surprise. If you do, it would only show that you were not a witness to the event. So this is tricky because there are some situations where you can use ‑mış for surprise but not for rumors or conclusions.

For example, imagine your friend Ahmet surprised you by showing up at your house unexpectedly. The moment you notice him coming, you can say, “Ahmet gelmiş!” (Ahmet came!). However, if you were talking about it the next day, you would have to say “Ahmet geldi” because you witnessed him coming. If you were to say “Ahmet gelmiş” after the fact, people think that you must not have been at home when he came.

Examples
Dilan’la Ferhat Kaçmış!
Dilan and Ferhat ran away!
(Title of an episode of the TV drama, Yeni Gelin)

Son otobüs gitmiş. Ne yapacağız peki?
The last bus left already! Well, what are we going to do?
(Excerpt from a story)

Compliments

Another common usage of the ‑mış ending is for compliments. As in the examples above, you might notice that this usage also contains an element of surprise. Using ‑mış in compliments is like saying the English word Wow! when someone did a good job.

Examples
Çorba güzel olmuş, ellerine sağlık.
The soup is really good, thank you! (Literally: Soup became good, health to your hands)
(A common way to compliment someone’s cooking)

Olağanüstü iş başarmışsınız.
You did an extraordinary job!
(Title of a news story)

Baby talk

As I noted above, the ‑mış ending is used in situations that are new for unprepared minds. Because of this, it is very common to use the ‑mış ending when talking with small children. This is because many situations are new for children, so their minds are unprepared even for everyday situations.

Examples
Bak ne getirmiş, bak bak!
Look, what did he bring? Look, look!
(Quotation from a character in a book talking to a child)

Küçük bir kedi gelmiş alışverişeeee…
A little kitten came to do some shopping…
(Caption of a photo of a little girl dressed as a kitten)

Using ‑mış when telling a story

In many Turkish stories in the masal (“fairy tale”) and fıkra (“anecdote”) genres, the ‑mış ending is used throughout the entire story. In this case, using the ‑mış ending is a signal to the listener that the story is fictional.

Example: Eşeğe Yardım Ediyorum Nasrettin Hoca Fıkrası
Nasrettin Hoca, bir gün eşeğine binip çarşıya gitmiş. Torbasını tıka basa doldurup omuzuna atmış. Tekrar eşeğine binip yola çıkmış.
Yolda karşılaştığı komşusu,
– Ya, hoca bu ne hal? Ne diye torbayı eşeğinde yüklemiyorsun, demiş.
Hoca cevap vermiş.
– Zavallı eşeğe yardım ediyorum. Zaten beni bile zor taşıyor!

One day, Nasrettin Hoca (teacher) got on his donkey and went into town. Filling his bag to the brim, he threw it over his shoulder. Then, getting back on his donkey, he went on his way.
His neighbor, whom he passed along the way, said to him,
– Hey, teacher, what is the deal? Why are you not putting the bag on the donkey?
The teacher responded.
– I am helping the poor donkey. He is already having enough trouble carrying just me!
(Source: Masal Oku)

Using ‑mış to turn verbs into adjectives

The ‑mış ending can also be used in a completely different way: turning a verb into a descriptive word (an adjective). For example, okumak is a verb that means “to read/study.” But if we add the ‑mış ending to it and put it before “adam” (man), it tells us about what the man has done. So, “okumuş adam” means “a man who has studied.” Likewise, “doymak” means “to fill” and “yağ” means “fat.” So, “doymuş yağ” is how to say “saturated fat.”

Since this form is useful for describing things, you will find it on a lot of labels for products and signs around Turkey. For examples of these, see the pictures below. And the next time you go to the store, look at all the labels on the things you see on shelves to see if you can find any more examples of the ‑mış ending like these.

Examples from product labels

Kaplanmış dondurulmuş parmak patates
Coated, frozen french fries


Haşlanmış börülce
Boiled black eyed peas


Kızartılmış kaju fıstığı
Roasted cashew nuts


Hazır kesilmiş pişirme kağıdı
Ready-cut baking paper


Kurutulmuş domates aromalı ve fesleğenli patates cipsi
Dried tomato-flavored and basil-spiced potato chips


Yağı azaltılmış bitkisel margarin
Reduced fat vegetable margarine (lit., vegetable margarine that has had its fat reduced)