English has an embarrassment of futures: will, shall, going to, about to, the present continuous used for arrangements. Choosing between them is a genuine difficulty for learners of English. Turkish has one future ending in two shapes — -ecek after front vowels, -acak after back vowels — and that is the entire system. gel + eceğ + im = geleceğim, I will come. Two spelling habits go with it. When a vowel follows, the final k softens to ğ, so gelecekim is written geleceğim. And if the stem ends in a vowel, a y slides in: bekle + y + eceğ + iz. The negative goes where it always goes, before the tense: gelmeyeceğim. One bonus: the word gelecek also means «next» and «the future», so gelecek hafta is next week. You get an adjective, a noun and a tense out of the same eight letters.
Yarın geleceğim.I will come tomorrow. The k of -ecek softened to ğ before the vowel.
Ne yapacaksın?What will you do? yap is back, so -acak.
Gelecek hafta Ankara'ya gideceğim.Next week I will go to Ankara. gelecek doing double duty as «next».
Sana yardım edeceğim.I will help you. yardım etmek = «to do help»; only etmek takes the ending.
Seni arayacağım.I will call you. ara ends in a vowel, so a y links it: ara + y + acağ + ım.
Yarın erken kalkacağım.Tomorrow I will get up early. The classic New Year sentence.
Bu akşam ne yiyeceğiz?What shall we eat tonight? ye becomes yi before the future ending.
Bekleyeceğiz.We will wait. bekle + y + eceğ + iz.
Onlar da gelecekler.They will come too. da means «too» and stands as its own word.
Söz veriyorum, unutmayacağım.I promise, I will not forget. söz vermek = to give one's word.
Türkçe öğreneceğim.I will learn Turkish. Say it out loud; it is the reason you are here.
Ne zaman geleceksiniz?When will you come? ne zaman = «what time», the ordinary way to ask «when».
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