Lessons · 3 of 18

The present

One tense does the work of two: "I go" and "I'm going".

English makes you choose between "I go" and "I'm going". Karachay doesn't: one present tense covers both, and context does the rest. barama means "I go" and "I'm going" — whichever the conversation calls for.

The recipe: stem, plus a linking vowel, plus person endings — but the present set, not the past set from lesson 2. For consonant-ending stems the link is a or e (matching family, as always):

• men barama — I am going
• sen barasa — you are going
• ol baradı — he/she/it is going
• biz barabız — we are going
• siz barasız — you all are going
• ala baradıla — they are going

Now compare the two sets side by side, because five of the six endings are different — this is the second set, not a variation on the first:

• bardım — past set: -m
• barama — present set: -ma
• bardık — past set: -q
• barabız — present set: -bız
• bardıng — past set: -ñ
• barasa — present set: -sa

Only they/them is shared (-la), and he/she/it flips the other way: the past has no ending at all, the present adds dı. The good news is that the present set is one you will meet again everywhere — the futures, the perfect, and the to-be endings of lesson 14 (kalaysa, ulluma) are all this same set.

Stems that end in a vowel take y as the link instead: aşayma "I'm eating", işleyme "I'm working". You have already seen a real one in the time words bank: bügün işleyme — "I'm working today."