Conditional Mood (-se/-sa)

The conditional mood (şart kipi) expresses "if". Its suffix is -se / -sa (two-way vowel harmony), followed by the short personal endings -m, -n, –, -k, -niz/-nız, -ler/-lar. The if-clause normally comes first.

Two Kinds of "If"

• Bare stem + -se/-sa (gelsem): hypothetical, unlikely or wished-for situations ("if I came", "if only I came"). With mi it makes suggestions: Gitsek mi? (Shall we go?)
• Tense + -se/-sa: real, possible conditions. The most common is the aorist + -se/-sa (gelirsem): "if I come".

Conjugation (gelmek – to come)

Usage in Sentences

• Yağmur yağarsa evde kalırız. (If it rains, we'll stay at home.)
• Çalışırsan başarırsın. (If you work hard, you'll succeed.)
• Gelmezsen üzülürüm. (If you don't come, I'll be sad.)
• Param olsa yeni bir araba alırdım. (If I had money, I would buy a new car.) (hypothetical: the main verb is usually in the past aorist -r-dı)
• Keşke burada olsan. (I wish you were here.)

Combined with Other Tenses

• Aorist: yaparsam (if I do)
• Future: yapacaksam (if I'm going to do) (the k stays in writing; only casual speech shortens it)
• Present continuous: yapıyorsam (if I am doing)
• Past: yaptıysam (if I did)

Unreal Past: -seydi / -saydı

-se/-sa + -ydi/-ydı + personal ending describes things that did not happen: Gelseydin onu görürdün. (If you had come, you would have seen him/her.) Keşke daha önce söyleseydin. (I wish you had said it earlier.)

With Nouns and Adjectives: -(y)se / -(y)sa

Non-verbal sentences take -se/-sa (buffer y after vowels) or the separate word ise: Hastaysan evde kal. (If you're ill, stay at home.) Vaktin varsa gel. (If you have time, come.)

Common Mistakes

• Bare -sa for real future conditions: Yarın yağmur yağsa... sounds hypothetical ("if it were to rain"); for a real possibility use yağarsa.
• Negative of the aorist conditional: gelmezsem ✓, not gelmesersem ✗.
• Ending in the wrong place: gelirimse ✗ → gelirsem ✓ (the personal ending follows -se/-sa).