Turkish Language - The Co-operative Verb Form

The Co-operative form of the verb is where the sense given is that the action is performed with another person or persons. The co-operation may be contrary in meaning. - ie. They fought EACH OTHER. In this case Turkish will use its co-operative form of the verb vuruşmak - meaning - to fight EACH OTHER - as opposed to the basic verb - vurmak - to hit. - Many commonly daily used words are of the Co-operative form, and as we learn them we may not realize this.

The Co-operative Verb

In English it is not always apparent when a verb is co-operative, for instance the verb to collide. You can collide with a wall - (a single occurrence) or with another car - (co-operative occurrence). Turkish does make this distinction:
In the first case: - çarpmak - to bump, collide
Bir duvara çarptım - I bumped a wall
In the second case: - çarpışmak - to bump, collide with.
Bir arabayla çarpıştım. - I collided with a car

Co-operative Verb Formation

The Co-operative verb sign is -iş which is added to the verb stem and it is subject to Vowel harmony so the suffix can take the following forms: -ış or -iş or -uş or -üş and -ş is added to verb stems which end in a vowel.

Active VerbCo-operative Verb
vurmak - to hit
ona vurdum - I hit him 		vuruşmak - to hit
Birbirleriyle vuruştular - They fought each other.
[Lit: hit each other]
görmek - to see
Memet'i gördüm - I saw Mehmet 		görüşmek - to see each other/to meet
Mehmet ile görüşeceğim - I'm going to meet Mehmet
[Lit: I will meet (see each other) with Mehmet.]
anlamak - to understand
Ali'yi anlıyoruz - We understand Ali 		anlaşmak - to understand each other/to agree
Anlaşıyoruz, değil mi? - We agree, don't we?
Ali ile anlaşıyoruz. - We agree with Ali.
[Lit: understand each other]
Birbirleriyle - with each other - We should use always - ile - with - with co-operative verbs, since the action is done by at least two persons.

A note about the the verb - vurmak

  • When used with The Motion Toward (Dative Suffix -a/-e) - it means - to strike, to hit
    Mehmet bana vurdu - Mehmet hit me - [to me]
  • When used with Direct Object (Accusative Suffix -ı/-i/-u/-ü)- it means - to shoot dead, to kill
    Mehmet kuşu vurdu - Mehmet shot the bird [dead]
Thanks to Gülçin K. for pointing out the differing meanings of vurmak when used with varying objective suffixes - J.G - 7 may 2010

Co-operative Form usage

As we mentioned in the heading of this section many Co-operative forms are in regular use and one should begin to get the feeling in Turkish that the -iş suffix concerns something that is done in concert (either with or against.) - and can be used with certain nouns to show "a doing together".

This "in concert" suffix also shows up in some nouns - for instance - giriş - means - entrance - but can be construed to mean - (Lit: - an entering in concert).
Similarly - çıkış - exit - [Lit: - a leaving in concert]

Common Co-operative verbs

Also as previously mentioned many verbs with regular use are in the Co-operative form:
konuşmak - to speak - [with each other]
anlaşmak - to agree - [to understand together]
sevişmek - to make love - [with each other]
öpüşmek - to kiss - [with each other]
çalışmak - to work - [with or at something or other]