-gay / -gʻay / -kay / -qay
The Poetic Wish Form -gay
-gay adds may it be so to a verb: Baxtli boʻlgʻaysiz! (May you be happy!) You meet it in poems, prayers, blessings and old texts.
How It Works
1. The shapes
The ending goes on the verb stem. Some verbs take -gay and others -gʻay, a trace of old vowel harmony that modern endings no longer follow (see no vowel harmony in suffixes). After k it becomes -kay, and after q it becomes -qay:
- kelgay (may he come), koʻtargay (may he raise)
- boʻlgʻay (may it be), qilgʻay (may he do)
- chiqqay (may it come out): Orzularingiz roʻyobga chiqqay! (May your dreams come true!)
Learn the common words as you meet them.
2. Person endings and the negative
Add the long person endings: boʻlgʻayman (may I be), boʻlgʻaysan, boʻlgʻay, boʻlgʻaymiz, boʻlgʻaysiz. For the negative, put -ma- before the ending: boʻlmagʻay (may it not be). A well-known saying: Ota-onadan duo olgan kam boʻlmagʻay (One who has their parents' blessing will never be in need).
3. Where you meet it
A study of Uzbek verb styles lists -gay as a literary form. You will find it in classical poetry, as in Navoiy's line Bogʻi umrumda bahorim kelgay (my spring will come to the garden of my life), where it is a longed-for future, in modern poems, in prayers and in wedding and birthday wishes. It sounds solemn, so for a plain wish use -sin, and for a plain future use the present-future: Ertaga kelaman (I will come tomorrow).
Examples (5)
- Baxtli boʻlgʻaysiz!
May you be happy!
Word by Word: Happy may-be-you!
- Orzularingiz roʻyobga chiqqay!
May your dreams come true!
Word by Word: Dreams-your reality-to may-come-out!
chiq- ends in q, so the ending is -qay.
- Yurtimiz doimo tinch boʻlgʻay.
May our land always be at peace.
Word by Word: Land-our always peaceful may-be.
- Ota-onadan duo olgan kam boʻlmagʻay.
One who has their parents' blessing will never be in need.
Word by Word: Parents-from blessing taken-one lacking may-not-be.
A traditional saying with the negative -magʻay.
- Bogʻi umrumda bahorim kelgay.
My spring will come to the garden of my life.
Word by Word: Garden-of life-my-in spring-my will-come.
A line by Alisher Navoiy (15th century). It follows Ne kun oʻlgʻayki, nigorim kelgay (When will the day come that my beloved comes?), so here -gay is a longed-for future. Bogʻi umr uses the Persian linking -i.
Common Mistakes
Keeping g after q.
Orzularingiz roʻyobga chiqgay!Orzularingiz roʻyobga chiqqay!After q the ending becomes -qay, and after k it becomes -kay, just as -gan becomes -qan in chiqqan.
Leaving off the person ending (meant: May you be happy, to one person).
Siz baxtli boʻlgʻay!Siz baxtli boʻlgʻaysiz!The verb agrees with the person: boʻlgʻaysiz for siz. Without an ending, boʻlgʻay is third person: may he or she be.
How It Connects
Learn This First
Builds on Let Him or Her: -sin and If Only: -sa edi.
Related Patterns
- -a/-yPresent-Future Tense
The everyday future: kelaman.
Level 1 - G-Initial Endings After K and Q
The same k and q shapes as -gan: chiqqan, chiqqay.
Level 3 - No Vowel Harmony in Suffixes
Modern endings ignore vowel harmony; -gʻay is an old trace of it.
Level 1 - -ajakThe Literary Future -ajak
Another old future ending, kept in kelajak.
Level 6
Practice -gay / -gʻay / -kay / -qay in Bubblegum
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