Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

For some speakers, the form -(y)AcAk olsa has another function, parallel to the ‘tentative’
use of -(y)AcAk olursa (27.2.1.3), in which the event expressed by the conditional clause
is not subsequent to that of the main clause. In this case the tentativeness is compounded
by the hypotheticality of the conditional element olsa:
(54) [[Sözleşme imzalandıktan sonra] arkadaşın çekilecek olsa] sen yanarsın
‘[If your friend were to pull out [after the contract is signed]], you’d be ruined.’
The form -mIş olsaydı is often used synonymously with -sAydI, to express a
counterfactual condition without any ‘relative tense’ component in its meaning:
(55) [Mehmet üniversiteyi kazansaydı/kazanmış olsaydı] babası ona Ankara’da
ev tutacaktı.
‘[If Mehmet had got into university], his father was going to rent a flat for him in
Ankara.’
The evidentially marked olsaymış can occur in all compound forms where the context
requires it (see 27.2.5):
(56) [Ben şapka giy-ecek ol-sa-ymış-ım] o da giy-ecek-miş.
I hat wear-FUT AUX-COND-EV.COP-1SG s/he also wear-FUT-EV.COP
‘Apparently s/he would have worn a hat [if I was going to].’
27.3 KNOWABLE CONDITIONS
The potential for fulfilment of the condition expressed by a predictive conditional clause
is ‘unknowable’, in that the condition refers to the unforeseeable future, or to a
hypothetical world, or to an event that is known not to have happened. The knowable
type of condition, on the other hand, is one about whose fulfilment or non-fulfilment
information is in principle available, because it refers either to present or past time, or to
planned or scheduled future events.
The conditional marker in a knowable condition is always the conditional copula,
attached to one of the following:
Present tense:
Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 430
(a) a position 3 tense/aspect/modality suffix (8.2.3.3) (not the aorist)
(b) any constituent functioning as a subject complement (12.1.1.2)
(c) the particle değil
(d) one of the existential expressions var/yok
(e) the past or evidential copula.
(57) [Tanju futbol oyn-uyor-sa] iyileş-miş ol-malı.
Tanju football play-IMPF-COND.COP get.better-PF AUX-OBLG
‘[If Tanju is playing football], he must have got better.’
(58) [Meşgul-se-niz] rahatsız etmeyeyim.
busy-COND.COP-2SG/PL
‘[If you’re busy] let me not disturb [you].’