Sorry for the vagueness of this question, but how and where do you use the verb tenses in Turkish which contain -miş-, -mış-, -muş-, or -müş-? I have read the explanation that it is used where an action has occurred in the past, but the speaker has not witnessed it's occurrence. However, in this case, words like "konuşmuşum" and "konuşmuşuz" wouldn't really make any sense because if the first-person speaker has committed the action, they must have witnessed the action themselves. How would each of these be used? If you want to, you can just give me examples for each word.

Also, how would each of the compound tenses including this suffix be used? If you can, give me an example sentence including:
Konuşmuş (any subject)
Konuşuyormuş (any subject)
Konuşurmuş (any subject)
Konuşmuştu (any subject)
Konuşmuşmuş (any subject)
Konuşmuşacak (is this a word?) (any subject)
You can ignore any other compound tenses that may exist.

Thank you!

Question

Sorry for the vagueness of this question, but how and where do you use the verb tenses in Turkish which contain -miş-, -mış-, -muş-, or -müş-? I have read the explanation that it is used where an action has occurred in the past, but the speaker has not witnessed it's occurrence. However, in this case, words like "konuşmuşum" and "konuşmuşuz" wouldn't really make any sense because if the first-person speaker has committed the action, they must have witnessed the action themselves. How would each of these be used? If you want to, you can just give me examples for each word.

Also, how would each of the compound tenses including this suffix be used? If you can, give me an example sentence including:
Konuşmuş (any subject)
Konuşuyormuş (any subject)
Konuşurmuş (any subject)
Konuşmuştu (any subject)
Konuşmuşmuş (any subject)
Konuşmuşacak (is this a word?) (any subject)
You can ignore any other compound tenses that may exist.

Thank you!

nitaaotearoa · Answer

To add another question, what about -muş olmak? e.g. in this sentence: 'hayatta bir amacın olsun. Yolunu kaybetmemiş olursun.'

Deleted user · Answer

@nitaaotearoa That miş makes that verb an adjective, and that adjective is being used as a noun.

Deleted user · Answer

Firstly, I believe I should discuss my opinion and understandings with somebody who is knowledgable in this topic, still, I will give my own understandings so that you may benefit from them.

It is correct that "-muş" can be used by somebody who narrates something from somebody else.

"Konuşmuşum" actually does make sense, provided that you either don't remember talking, OR somebody makes some claims about you, and you narrate these claims about yourself to somebody else, usually in a mocking manner, finding the claims to be absurd.

For example, Henry says about me: "Emirhan talked to Mr.xyz yesterday night.", now, I want to narrate what Henry claimed about me to somebody else, I will use "-miş/-muş/etc":

"Dün gece Bay xyz ile konuşmuşum."

This kind of usage is for situations in which somebody makes a claim about you, and you are like "Oh, did I? Then why do I not remember it?" in a sarcastic way, knowing that the claim is false.

Now, about your list of verbs with "-muş":

Not every "-muş" is used to imply a narration. It can also be used to make an adjective out of a verb, for example: The verb to die, "öl-mek", remove the "-mek" and add "-müş", and you get "ölmüş", which means "dead(adj.)".

Let's use that in a sentence:

Bana ölmüş çiçekler getirdi. (He brought me dead flowers.)

Realize that the "-muş" here does not at all imply a narration.

Here is how the "-muş" of narration would be used:

John 3 ay önce ölmüş.

John died 3 months ago.

I hope you can now differentiate between the adjective making and the narration implying "muş"s.

Why did I go into this? That word you have, "konuşmuş-tu", it can be translated as "He had spoken", but let's break it apart first:

"Konuşmuş" is an adjective, means "a person who spoke".

"-tu (actually -du)" is the verb "be", so in this case, it's "was".

So the more literal translation would be:

"He was someone-who-spoke".

"Was" is in the past, and so is "spoke". Meaning, in the past, he already was someone who spoke. This is basically past perfect.

Now for the examples you asked for:

Dün gece arkadaşıyla konuşmuş. He (according to what is being said,) spoke to his friend yesterday night.

İzmir'e gidiyormuş. He is (according to what is being said) going to İzmir.

Bu kuşlar çok konuşurmuş. These birds (according to what is being said) speak alot.

"Konuşmuştu" is not relevant to these "muş"s.

"Konuşmuşmuş" is something that you will MOST likely never have to use and even if you insisted on learning it, I'd rather you learn it by imitating the way other people use it, I just don't have a good explanation for this one.

"Konuşmuşacak" either does not exist at all, or it is buried deep down somewhere in the roots of Turkish, so deep that no Turkish has even heard of it before. I can simply say that it doesn't exist, but I won't do that, because I can't prove its inexistence.

To make you understand better: I usually make up my own logical structures in Arabic, and when I ask people about them, they tend to say that it is wrong, while they haven't studied the entire classical Arabic. In almost every question i have ever asked here, I get the same kind of answer from people. I just don't like that.

Anyway, I do have 1 good news for you, what you seemingly tried to say by "konuşmuşacak" can actually be said by "konuşacakmış", which means "He (according what is being said) will speak.".

Note: Sorry for taking so long to give a proper answer, I just had to figure how to explain it all. If there is anything you don't understand, feel free to ask.

Deleted user · Answer

It seems like I made an awful typo, one that gives another meaning to the sentence..

"Konuşmuştu" can be translated as "He HAD spoken.", not "has".

To add another question, what about -muş olmak? e.g. in this sentence: 'hayatta bir amacın olsun. Yolunu kaybetmemiş olursun.'

@nitaaotearoa That miş makes that verb an adjective, and that adjective is being used as a noun.

It seems like I made an awful typo, one that gives another meaning to the sentence.. "Konuşmuştu" can be translated as "He HAD spoken.", not "has".

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It seems like I made an awful typo, one that gives another meaning to the sentence..

"Konuşmuştu" can be translated as "He HAD spoken.", not "has".