Lessons · 16 of 18

How an action unfolds

Not when something happened but how it went — right in the middle of it, or over and over for years.

Every tense so far has answered when. This lesson is about two helpers that answer how — whether you were caught in the middle of something, or did it again and again for years. Neither touches the main verb: it freezes into a shape you already know, and the helper does all the work.

In the middle of it — tura

tururğa on its own means "to stand, to keep on". Put the a-form of a verb in front of it and it stops being a verb of its own and becomes a marker: the action is under way right now, and you are in the thick of it.

• bara turama — I am (in the middle of) going
• bara turasa — you are in the middle of going
• bara turadı — he is in the middle of going

The plain present barama already covers "I am going", so reach for this one when being mid-action is the point — sen ne ete turasa? "what are you in the middle of doing?" Notice that only the helper changes. bara never moves.

Push the helper into the past and you get the sentence that gets interrupted: bara tura edim — "I was in the middle of going". And because that ends in edi, lesson 7's shortcut applies exactly as it always does: in speech it is bara turaem.

Over and over — ıwçan

A habit is not a tense in English either — we say "usually" or "used to" and leave the verb alone. Karachay builds it into the word. Take the ıw noun from lesson 15 and add çan, and you have an adjective-like word meaning "in the habit of": barıwçan, "given to going".

• barıwçanma — I usually go
• barıwçandı — he usually goes
• barıwçan edim — I used to go

The endings on it are the ordinary to-be endings — the same ones that turn ullu into ulluma back in lesson 14. Put edi after it instead and the habit moves into the past.

Now the three pasts sit side by side, which is exactly how the 1990 Elbrusoid phrasebook lays them out:

• cazğan edim — I had written
• caza edim — I was writing
• cazıwçan edim — I used to write

One event, an event in progress, and a standing habit. English needs a different sentence shape for each; Karachay needs a different ending.

Verbs that finish each other's sentences

There is a third way to shade an action, and it is not a tense at all — just two verbs in a row, the first in its b form from lesson 15 and the second carrying the meaning:

• barıb ketdi — off he went (and away)
• barıb kaldı — he ended up going
• körüb başladı — he began to see

These are turns of phrase rather than forms to memorise, and the second verb keeps its own literal meaning underneath — keterge is "to leave", kalırğa "to stay". Note that "began to" is built on the b form and not on the dictionary form: körüb başladı, not körürge başladı.

One caution, and we would rather say it than hide it: we have not found a negative tura sentence written down anywhere. The tables put the ma on the helper — bara turmayma — because that is where the nearest attested example puts it, but treat that row as our best reading rather than something we have seen in print.