Turkish Grammar

Turkish grammar ( tr, Türkçe dil bilgisi), as described in this article, is the grammar of standard Turkish as spoken and written by educated people in the Republic of Turkey.

Turkish is a highly agglutinative language, in that much of the grammar is expressed by means of suffixes added to nouns and verbs. It is very regular compared with many European languages. For example, ''evlerden'' "from the houses" can be analysed as ''ev'' "house", ''-ler'' (plural suffix), ''-den'' (ablative case, meaning "from"); ''gidiyorum'' "I am going" as ''git'' "go", ''-iyor'' ( present continuous tense), ''-um'' (1st person singular = "I").

Another characteristic of Turkish is vowel harmony. Most suffixes have two or four different forms, the choice between which depends on the vowel of the word's root or the preceding suffix: for example, the ablative case of ''evler'' is ''evlerden'' "from the houses" but, the ablative case of ''başlar'' "heads" is ''başlardan'' "from the heads".

Verbs have six grammatical persons (three singular and three plural), various voices (active and passive, reflexive, reciprocal, and causative), and a large number of grammatical tenses. Meanings such as "not", "be able", "should" and "if", which are expressed as separate words in most European languages, are usually expressed with verbal suffixes in Turkish. A characteristic of Turkish which is shared by neighboring languages such as Bulgarian and Persian is that the perfect tense suffix (in Turkish ''-miş-'', ''-müş-'', ''-mış-'', or ''-muş-'') often has an inferential meaning, e.g. ''geliyormuşum'' "it would seem (they say) that I am coming".

Verbs also have a number of participial forms, which Turkish makes much use of. Clauses which begin with "who" or "because" in English are generally translated by means of participial phrases in Turkish.

In Turkish, verbs generally come at the end of the sentence or clause; adjectives and possessive nouns come before the noun they describe; and meanings such as "behind", "for", "like/similar to" etc. are expressed as postpositions following the noun rather than prepositions before it.

Introduction

Suffixes

A suffix (''ek'') is attached to a stem (''gövde''). A stem may be a root (''kök'') or further analyzable. The suffixes used in Turkish fall roughly into two classes: constructive suffixes (''yapım ekleri'') and inflectional suffixes (''çekim ekleri''). A constructive suffix makes a new word from an old one, that is, it is a derivational suffix. An inflectional suffix indicates how a word is used in a sentence. The article on Turkish grammar pertains chiefly to inflectional suffixes. The article on Turkish vocabulary treats the constructive suffixes.

The vowels of suffixes undergo vowel harmony. When a suffix is attached to a stem, the vowel in the suffix generally agrees in frontness or backness and in roundedness with the last vowel in the stem or of the preceding suffix.

Some suffixes show two-way vowel harmony between ''e'' and ''a'', for example the plural suffix ''-ler/-lar''. The ''e'' form is found after a syllable with ''i'', ''e'', ''ö'' or ''ü'' (e.g. ''evler'' "houses", ''günler'' "days"), and also after certain Arabic or French borrowings such as ''saatler'' "hours, clocks", ''kalpler'' "hearts". Other suffixes show four-way vowel harmony between ''i'', ''ı'', ''u'', ''ü'', for example the possessive ending ''-im/-ım/-um/-üm'' "my". These endings are found after syllables containing their own vowels or after ''e'', ''a'', ''o'', ''ö'' respectively (e.g. ''evim'' "my house", ''gözüm'' "my eye", etc.)

A Turkish suffix can be called ''enclitic'' if its vowel undergoes vowel harmony, agreeing with the last vowel of the stem the suffix is attached to.

Gender

Turkish is a gender-neutral language except for a few sex-specific words (mostly naming professions or different sexes of livestock). The English third-person singular pronouns ''she'', ''he'', and ''it'' all correspond to a single Turkish pronoun, ''o''. Many given names in Turkish are also gender-neutral, so it is entirely possible to describe someone in the Turkish language without their gender identity being made known.

Person

Turkish has a strong T–V distinction, using the second-person plural as the formal form, as in French and many other languages.

Turkish also uses various honorifics.

T–V distinction

Family members and friends speak to one another using the second singular person ''sen'', and adults use ''sen'' to address minors. In formal situations (meeting people for the first time, business, customer-clerk, colleagues) plural second-person ''siz'' is used almost exclusively. In very formal situations, double plural second-person ''sizler'' may refer to a much-respected person. Rarely, third-person plural conjugation of the verb (but not the pronoun) may be used to emphasize utmost respect. In the imperative, there are three forms: second person singular for informal, second person plural for formal, and double plural second person for very formal situations. Thus, the imperative forms of the verb ''gelmek'', "to come", are ''gel'' (second person singular, informal), ''gelin'' (second person plural, formal), and ''geliniz'' (double second-person plural, very formal). The very formal forms are not frequently used.

Honorifics

Turkish honorifics generally follow the first name, especially if they refer to gender or particular social statuses (e.g. Bey (Mr.), Hanım (Ms.), Öğretmen (teacher)). Such honorifics are used both in formal and informal situations. A newer honorific is ''Sayın,'' which precedes the surname or full name, and is not gender-specific. (e.g. Sayın Name Surname, or Sayın Surname, or Sayın Name Bey/Hanım). They are generally used in very formal situations. While these honorifics are normally used in pre-position to Turkish first names, for foreigners, names are preceded by ''Bay'' (Mr.) or ''Bayan'' (Ms.): Bay oxMulder, Bayan anaScully (cf. Fox ulderBey, Dana cullyHanım, if these names were Turkish).

Turkish terminology

In the Turkish terms for the constructive and inflectional endings, three roots are involved:
*''ek'' "supplement, affix" (notably Turkish has no prefixes)
*''yap-'' "make"
*''çek-'' "pull, draw"
For the last two verbal roots, the constructive suffix ''-im'' can be added to form nouns for instances of the actions denoted by the roots:
*''yapım'' "construction";
*''çekim'' " pull or draw" (or a "take" in cinema).
Either of these nouns can be compounded with the noun ''ek'', resulting in an indefinite compound (''belirtisiz tamlama''), the sign of which is the inflectional suffix ''-i'' attached to ''ek'':
*''yapım eki'' "structure-suffix";
*''çekim eki'' "inflection-suffix".
The inflectional suffix ''-ler'' comes before the ''-i'' to form the plural, so ''yapım ekleri, çekim ekleri''.

Many words in Turkish— particularly many grammatical terms— are neologisms invented to replace earlier words borrowed from Arabic or Persian, which have largely been successful at permanently superseding the previously used foreign terms. (See the main article on Turkish language#Language reform and modern Turkish, Turkish language.) In some cases, the foreign term continues to be in use alongside the neologism.

Parts of speech

There are nine parts of speech (''söz türleri'' "word-kinds") in Turkish.
#noun (''isim'' or ''ad'' "name");
#pronoun (''zamir'' "inner being", or ''adıl'' from ''ad'');
#adjective (''sıfat'' "role, quality", or ''önad'' "front-noun");
#verb (''fiil'' "act, deed", or ''eylem'' "action" from ''eyle-'' "make, do");
#adverb (''zarf'' "envelope", or ''belirteç'' from ''belir-'' "determine");
#postposition (''ilgeç'' from ''ilgi'' "interest, relation");
#conjunction (''bağlaç'' from ''bağ'' "bond");
#particle (''edat'', or ''ilgeç'');
#interjection (''nidâ'' bsolete or ''ünlem'' from ''ün'' "fame, repute, sound").
Postpositions are analogous to prepositions in English, the main difference being that they follow their objects. Postpositions can be considered particles, but there are particles in Turkish that are not postpositions.

Only nouns, pronouns and verbs are inflected in Turkish. An adjective can usually be treated as a noun or pronoun, in which case it can also be inflected. Inflection can give a noun features of a verb such as person and tense. With inflection, a verb can become one of the following:
* verbal noun (''isim-fiil'');
* verbal adjective (''sıfat-fiil'') or participle (''ortaç'');
* verbal adverb (''zarf-fiil''; called a ''gerund'' by Lewis (1967)).
These have peculiarities not shared with other nouns, adjectives or adverbs.
For example, some participles take a ''person'' the way verbs do.
Also, a verbal noun or adverb can take a direct object.
Some verbal nouns are ''not'' inflected forms in Turkish but are borrowed from Arabic or other languages.

In Turkish, an ascriptive clause can be composed of a common noun standing alone as the Predicative, both the Subject and the Predicator being implicit and assumed from the situation. Example:
:''köpek'' – "dog"
:''Köpek.'' – "It is a dog."
This means that both a noun and a verb can alone constitute an affirmative clause in Turkish, which is not the case in English.

There are two standards for listing verbs in dictionaries. Most dictionaries follow the tradition of spelling out the infinitive form of the verb as the headword of the entry, but others such as the Redhouse Turkish-English Dictionary are more technical and spell out the stem of the verb instead, that is, they spell out a string of letters that is useful for producing all other verb forms through morphological rules. Similar to the latter, this article follows the stem-as-citeword standard.
* Infinitive: ''koşmak'' ("to run")
* Stem: ''koş-'' ("run")

In Turkish, the verbal stem is also the second-person singular imperative form. Example:
:''koş-'' (stem meaning "run")
:''Koş!'' ("Run!")

Many verbs are formed from nouns by addition of ''-le''. For example:
:''köpek'' – "dog"
:''köpekle'' – "dog paddle" (in any of several ways)

The aorist tense of a verb is formed by adding ''-(i/e)r''. The plural of a noun is formed by suffixing ''-ler''.
Hence, the suffix ''-ler'' can indicate either a plural noun or a finite verb:
:''Köpek'' + ''ler'' – "(They are) dogs."
:''Köpekle'' + ''r'' – "S/he dog paddles."

Most adjectives can be treated as nouns or pronouns. For example, ''genç'' can mean "young", "young person", or "the young person being referred to".

An adjective or noun can stand, as a modifier, before a noun. If the modifier is a noun (but not a noun of material), then the second noun word takes the inflectional suffix ''-i'':
:''ak diş'' – "white tooth"
:''altın diş'' – "gold tooth"
:''köpek dişi'' – "canine tooth"

Comparison of adjectives is not done by inflecting adjectives or adverbs, but by other means (described below).

Adjectives can serve as adverbs, sometimes by means of repetition:
:''yavaş'' – "slow"
:''yavaş yavaş'' – "slowly"

Word order

A general rule of Turkish word order is that the modifier precedes the modified:
*adjective (used attributively) precedes noun;
*adverb precedes verb;
*object of postposition precedes postposition.

Although the most common order of Turkish transitive sentences is subject–object–verb (SOV), all six permutations are valid (the subject and object are distinguished by case suffixes). The word order serves to express the theme and focus ( rheme) of the sentence: the sentence-initial portion is associated with the topic; the position just before the verb is used for the focus; and the post-verbal position is used for background or clarifying information.

The following sentences illustrate how subject–object–verb order changes the meaning.

Meanings may be different depending on emphasis.

In one study, only about half of the transitive sentences used by a sample of Turkish speakers were found to be in the SOV order.

When a sentence has multiple informational components, the stressed component is positioned just before the verb:

Morpheme order

The order of morphemes in Turkish is often opposite to English:

The above example is also illustrative of the productive nature of Turkish suffixes in creating new verbs, nouns, etc. Note that the word ''Avrupalılaştıramadık'' can be a verb, a participle or a noun; in this parse, it is a participle, or verbal adjective, that is used as a noun.

The longest published word in Turkish, ''muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenmişsinizcesine'', means "as if you are one of those that we cannot easily convert into an unsuccessful-person-maker" (i.e., someone who un-educates people to make them unsuccessful).

Inflectional suffixes

: ''For case endings, see ''

The plural suffix (''çoğul eki'') can be used with nouns and with third-person verbs:
* ''-ler'' (front vowel harmony: ''e'', ''i'', ''ö'', ''ü'')
* ''-lar'' (back vowel harmony: ''a'', ''ı'', ''o'', ''u'')

Nouns are derived from verbs in several ways. The number of ways of forming ''verbal'' nouns (''fiil isimleri'') from verb-stems can be debated; here are three:
:

Several series of endings show distinctions of person (''kişi''); they are given here, along with the personal pronouns for comparison:
:
The names given to the personal endings here are not standard. These endings are often just referred to as type I, II, III, and IV respectively; but the order in which the types are numbered is also not standard. Lewis (1967) refers to the suffixes of possession as "personal" endings.

In the third person, plural number is not always explicitly marked, and the same form is used for both singular and plural. If the plural suffix ''-ler'' is used, it combines with the personal endings as indicated in the final column of the table.

A "suffix of possession" gives the person of the ''possessor'' of the object named by the noun to which the suffix is attached; it also indicates a subject for a participle. (See .)

A "predicative" ending can assign a person to a noun, thus creating a complete sentence:
:''insan'' "human" → ''İnsanım.'' "I am a human."

See also and Turkish copula.

All of the personal suffixes can be used in the formation of verbs.
Verb-''stems'' have been mentioned.
A verb-base is obtained from a verb-''stem'' by attachment of certain suffixes or characteristics given below.
Then the personal endings here called "predicative" and "verbal" attach only to verb-''bases''; the optative and imperative endings attach to verb-''stems''.
:
The first syllable of the present/imperfective tense suffix (''-iyor'') exhibits vowel harmony while the second is invariable. When suffixed to a stem ending in a vowel, that vowel is elided: ''ye-'' + ''-iyor'' → ''yiyor''. The aorist negative and impotential forms are given here because they are anomalous. Note, that the ''-z'' of the aorist negative (''-mez'') and impotential (''-(y)emez'') is dropped in the first-person singular and plural, in order to be able to suffix it (but is retained when the interrogative particle ''mi'' intervenes; see below). (Aorist negative first-person singular: ''-mem''; but: aorist impotential third-person plural: ''-(y)emezler''.)

See also ''Negation and potential in verb-stems'' under below.

Some third-person verbs also function as participles.
Participles can be classified as personal, if they take a suffix of possession, and impersonal, if they do not. The following suffixes attach to verb-stems:
:
The interrogative particle (''soru eki'') is not written as a suffix, but phonetically it is enclitic; in particular, it exhibits vowel harmony:
* ''mi'' (front-unrounded vowel harmony: ''i'', after ''e'' and ''i'')
* ''mı'' (back-unrounded vowel harmony: ''ı'', after ''a'' and ''ı'')
* ''mu'' (back-rounded vowel harmony: ''u'', after ''o'' and ''u'')
* ''mü'' (front-rounded vowel harmony: ''ü'', after ''ö'' and ''ü'')

Nouns

Inflection

A Turkish noun has no gender.
The dictionary-form of a noun can take up to four (kinds of) inflectional suffixes, generally in the following order:
# plural suffix;
# suffix of possession (''iyelik eki'' from ''iye'' "owner");
# case-ending;
# personal suffix (''kişi eki'' from ''kişi'' "person").
Through its presence or absence, the plural ending shows distinctions of number.

Number

A noun is made plural by addition of ''-ler'' or ''-lar'' (depending on the vowel harmony). When a numeral is used with a noun, however, the plural suffix is usually ''not'' used:
:

The plural ending also allows a family (living in one house) to be designated by a single member:
:

In the last example, the first-person singular suffix of possession comes ''before'' the plural ending; this is an exception to the order of suffixes given above. In the usual order, we have:
:''teyzelerim'' "my maternal aunts"

Nouns are pluralized in standard temporal greetings.
: ''gün'' ("day") – ''İyi günler!'' ("Good day!")
: ''yıl'' ("year") – ''Mutlu yıllar!'' ("Happy new year!")

Possession

As noted earlier, the suffixes of possession give the person (and number) of the ''possessor'' of what is named by the noun:

When a word takes one of the endings of possession, the word becomes the name of something ''possessed'', not possessing. The word for the possessor, if present, takes the genitive case ending.

The plural ending will not be attached twice to the same word; therefore ambiguity is possible:
:

Ambiguity can be resolved with #Pronouns.

Case

The Turkish language is normally described as having six cases, whose names in English are borrowed from Latin grammar. The case endings (''durum ekleri'' 'ending condition') are regular and subject to vowel harmony.

The postposition ''ile'' is often absorbed onto the noun as ''-(y)le'', and some authors analyse this as an instrumental and comitative case. As it differs from the other case markers in several ways, it may be considered as an "inflectional marker" but not a case marker. In particular, unlike the other case endings, ''-(y)le'' is never accentuated. Also, when combined with the personal pronouns, the demonstratives, or the interrogative ''kim'', they are used in the genitive, ''e.g.'', ''kiminle'' 'with whom', not ''*kimle''.

If a case ending is attached to a demonstrative pronoun (which ends in ''o'' or ''u''), or to a noun that has already taken a third-person ending of possession, or to a compound noun where the second word is already suffixed, then the case ending is preceded by ''n'' (and the parenthetical ''y'' is not used). For instance: "Türk yemeklerini seviyorum.", "I love Turkish food."

= Absolute case

=
The absolute case combines the uses of the nominative, vocative, and (in part) accusative cases. It is for subjects, and for names of people being addressed. It is also used for ''indefinite'' direct objects. ''Definite'' direct objects are in the definite-accusative case:
:

= Dative case

=
The dative case tells the place ''to which''.
Thus it has roughly the meaning of the English prepositions "to" and "into", and also "in" when it can be replaced with "into":

The dative also is for objects, usually indirect objects, but sometimes objects that in English would be considered direct:

= Locative case

=
The locative case tells ''where'', hence corresponds to the English prepositions "at", "on", and "in" (when it does not mean "into").
: ''ev'' "house" → ''evde'' "at home"

:

= Ablative case

=
The ablative case tells ''whence'', that is, the place ''from which'' (or through which), hence:
*material ''out of which'' something is made;

*a cause ''by which'' something is effected;

*that ''to which'' other things are being ''compared'' (see #Adjectives below).

= Genitive case

=
The genitive case indicates a "compounding" (''tamlayan'') word. The corresponding "compounded" (''tamlanan'') word will take the appropriate suffix of possession. The pair of these words is then a definite compound (''belirtili tamlama''):
:
(The apostrophe in Turkish is used before suffixes attached to ''proper'' nouns.)

However, if two nouns are connected, but not by ownership, then the second noun generally takes an ending of possession, while the first takes no ending. The result is an indefinite compound (''belirtisiz tamlama''):
:

If one noun names a material, the other noun need not take an ending:
:

The genitive case can also be used for the subject of some complement or adjunct clauses:
* Annemizin uzak bir semtte oturmasına rağmen, her gün ona uğruyoruz. // Although our mother lives in a remote neighborhood, we visit her every day."
* Başkanın vermesi gerekiyor. // The president needs to give it.
* Tuğçe bizim Ankara'ya gitmemizi istedi. // Tuğçe wanted us to go to Ankara.
* Ben Ali'nin camı kırdığı zamanı biliyordum. // I knew when Ali broke the glass.

= Instrumental case

=
The instrumental case functions as both an instrumental and a comitative.
:

Predication

If a noun is to be in the first or second person, one of the predicative suffixes (or type-I personal suffixes) will show this.

Examples
: ''dünya'' "world" → ''Dünyayız.'' "We are the world."
: ''çocuk'' "child" → ''Çocuklarsınız.'' "You are the children"

In the third person, no ending is required.
However, the ending ''-dir'' can be used; it is said to be the remnant of a verb ''turur'' "S/he stands".
Again in the third person, the plural suffix may be used:
:

Several suffixes can be combined:

Verbal nouns

The infinitive, formed with ''-mek'' as noted earlier, does not take a suffix of possession, or the genitive case-ending. It does take all other case-endings. In particular, the progressive characteristic given earlier is the infinitive ending with the locative ending:
:''Konuşmaktayız'' – "We are in (the act of) speaking."
:''Savaşmaktayız'' – "We are in warmaking", that is, "We are at war."

The verbal noun in ''-me'' is called a ''gerund'' above, since it corresponds roughly to the English gerund.
:''bekle'' "wait" → ''bekleme'' "waiting": ''bekleme odası'' "waiting room"

The verbal noun can take a suffix of possession and any case-ending:

The dative form of a Turkish gerund can correspond precisely to an English infinitive with ''to'':

The suffix ''-iş'' can also be used to create verbal nouns:
:

The verb ''et-'' "make, do" can be considered as an auxiliary verb, since for example it is often used with verbal nouns borrowed from other languages, such as Arabic:
''kabul et-'' "accept" (''kabul'' " naccepting");
''reddet-'' "reject" (''ret'' " rejecting");
''ziyaret et-'' "visit" (''ziyaret'' " visiting").
Considered as units, these are transitive verbs; but the nouns in them can also, by themselves, take direct objects:
''Antalya'yı ziyaret'' "visit to Antalya".

What looks like an ablative gerund is usually an adverb; the ending ''-meden'' usually has the sense of "without".
See #Adverbs below.

An infinitive in the absolute case can be the object of a verb such as ''iste-'' "want":

Note here that the compound verb ''devam et-'' "continue, last" does not take a direct object, but is complemented by a dative noun.

Another way to express obligation (besides with ''lâzım'' as in the earlier example) is by means of ''zor'' "trouble, compulsion" and an infinitive:
''Gitmek zoru'' "Go compulsion",
''Gitmek zorundayız'' "We must go".
(''Source:'' same as the last example.)

Both an infinitive and a gerund are objects of the postposition ''için'' "for" in the third sentence of the quotation within the following quotation:

A free translation is:

The facility authorities said: "The people of this district amely Edremit, Van">Edremit,_Van.html" ;"title="amely amely Edremit, Vanare generally conservative. They cannot enter Lake Van">the lake comfortably, because the shore areas are near the road. So we are using a screen, both to close off the view of passersby on the road, and so that men will not cause discomfort." However, children cannot be prevented from spying on the other side through gaps in the screen.

Auxiliary verbs

Certain verbs in Turkish are used to enhance the meaning of other verbs, or to agglutinative language">agglutinate