Türkçe

Concepts / Grammar

Turkish grammar is fully compositional.
Meaning is built by stacking suffixes, not by word order or auxiliary words.

Think in LEGO blocks:

base word → possessive → case → verb

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Suffixes & Cases

Function	Case	Suffix	Example	English Explanation
Subject	Nominative	—	ev → house	Basic form
Object (definite)	Accusative	-ı / -i / -u / -ü	evi → I see the house	Definite object
Direction	Dative	-a / -e	eve → I go to the house	Movement towards
Place	Locative	-da / -de	evde → I am in the house	Static location
From	Ablative	-dan / -den	evden → I go out of the house	Origin
With	Instrumental	-la / -le	evle → with the house	Together / instrument

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Vowel Harmony

Suffix vowels are selected based on the last vowel of the word.

Last vowel	a/e harmony
a, ı, o, u	a
e, i, ö, ü	e

This rule applies everywhere:
cases, derivation, verb endings, future tense, etc.

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Buffer Letters

Buffer letters exist only to prevent vowel collision.
They carry no meaning.

• y → after a vowel
  • eve → eveye
• n → possessive + case
  • ev-i + e → ev-ine
• s → 3rd person possessive
  • evi → evisi

Root	Possessive Form	Explanation
ev (ends with consonant)	evi	3rd person singular, no buffer needed
	evi̇n	3rd person singular + case, no buffer
	evi̇ne	3rd person singular + dative, no buffer
araba (ends with vowel)	arabası	3rd person singular, -s- inserted as buffer
	arabasının	3rd person singular + case, -s- buffer used
	arabasına	3rd person singular + dative, -s- buffer used

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LEGO Example (Core Pattern)

1. Base word: ev (house)
2. Possessive: ev-i (his/her house)
3. Case: ev-i-ne (to his/her house)

Sentence:

Senin evine geliyorum
I am coming to your house

Key principle:

Possessive endings ≠ cases
They stack, they do not replace each other.

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Possession as a Bridge to Location

Turkish does not attach locations to persons. However, it uses the same contextual nuons by attaching locations to possessed nouns.

Possessive endings (person markers)

Person	Ending	Example
1st	-ım / -im	evim → my house
2nd	-ın / -in	evin → your house
3rd	-ı / -i	evi → his/her house

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Possession + Location (Repeatable Pattern)

Once something is possessed, any case can follow. To make something a place, you just add d + vowel.

Example: yan (side)

Form	Breakdown	Meaning
yanımda	yan + ım + da	at my side (here)
yanında	yan + ın + da	at your side (there)
yanında	yan + ı + nda	at his/her side (there)

Same structure as:

• evimde → in my house
• odanda → in your room

This pattern is fully repeatable.

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Case-driven Meaning Precision

Compare:

• Seni yanımda istiyorum
  → I want you with me
  (object + location)

• Senin yanında olmak istiyorum
  → I want to be with you
  (location + infinitive)

Same words, different LEGO order → different meaning.

Meaning changes because:

• accusative marks object
• locative marks place/state
• infinitive marks desired situation

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Spatial Deixis (This / That / Place)

These do not mark person — they mark distance & focus.

Form	Meaning
bu / burada	this / here (near speaker)
şu	that (contextual / intermediate)
o / orada	that / there (far / outside focus)

They combine naturally with possession:

• benim burada evim var
• onun orada evi var

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Numbers / Counting

Turkish numbers are fully compositional. You only need to learn the base units; all other numbers are built by stacking in a fixed order. No inflection, no agreement, no connectors.

Base numbers (must be memorized)

Number	Turkish	Notes
0	sıfır	zero
1	bir
2	iki
3	üç
4	dört
5	beş
6	altı
7	yedi
8	sekiz
9	dokuz
10	on	base for 11–19

Rule (11–19):
on + number

Tens (new lexical items)

Number	Turkish	Construction rule
20	yirmi	base
30	otuz	base
40	kırk	base
50	elli	base
60	altmış	base
70	yetmiş	base
80	seksen	base
90	doksan	base

Rule (21–99):
tens + ones

Larger numbers

For any number larger than 99, you need to learn only a few words to get above practical limits.

Number	Turkish	Rule
100	yüz	base
1000	bin	base
1 000 000	milyon	base
1 000 000 000	milyar	base
1 000 000 000 000	trilyon	base

Structural pattern and examples (deterministic)

[thousands] + [hundreds] + [tens] + [ones]

Hundreds

Number	Turkish	Structure
100	yüz	yüz
200	iki yüz	iki + yüz
305	üç yüz beş	üç + yüz + beş
418	dört yüz on sekiz	dört + yüz + on + sekiz

Thousands

Number	Turkish	Structure
1 000	bin	bin
1 234	bin iki yüz otuz dört	bin + iki + yüz + otuz + dört
3 400	üç bin dört yüz	üç + bin + dört + yüz
5 026	beş bin yirmi altı	beş + bin + yirmi + altı
7 508	yedi bin beş yüz sekiz	yedi + bin + beş + yüz + sekiz
9 019	dokuz bin on dokuz	dokuz + bin + on + dokuz

Note: bir bin is not used; bin alone means 1 000.

Millions

Number	Turkish	Structure
1 000 000	bir milyon	bir + milyon
2 450 000	iki milyon dört yüz elli bin	iki + milyon + dört + yüz + elli + bin
3 000 012	üç milyon on iki	üç + milyon + on + iki

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Verb Patterns

Base Verb	Meaning	1st person	2nd person	3rd person	Notes
Gitmek	to go	Geliyorum	Geliyorsun	Geliyor	Movement verbs
Gelmek	to come	Geliyorum	Geliyorsun	Geliyor
Yemek	to eat	Yerim	Yersin	Yer	Accusative applies
İçmek	to drink	İçiyorum	İçiyorsun	İçiyor	Accusative applies

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Tense, Aspect & Speaker Intent

Turkish tense expresses how the speaker frames the action.

Present Continuous (-yor)

Describes an ongoing situation or narrative.

• arıyorum → I am calling (now / as part of a story)

Aorist (-r)

Habitual or open future.

• sonra seni ararım → then I’ll call you (eventually)

Neutral, non-committal.

Future (-acak / -ecek)

Planned, intentional.

• sonra seni arayacağım → I will call you (decided)

Not used for planned future.

Formation is mechanical:

• verb + future + buffer + person

Why arayacağım?

1. ara + -acak (future)
2. vowel collision → y buffer
3. 1st person → -ım

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Derivational Suffixes (Meaning-Building)

Turkish frequently creates adjectives and properties by adding suffixes to nouns.
These suffixes describe what something has or lacks, not an action.

“With / Without” pattern

Suffix	Meaning	Example	English
-li / -lı / -lu / -lü	with / containing	şekerli	with sugar
-siz / -sız / -suz / -süz	without / lacking	şekersiz	without sugar

Vowel harmony applies to these suffixes.

Examples:

• süt → sütlü (with milk)
• süt → sütsüz (without milk)
• peynir → peynirli / peynirsiz

Important distinction

• -la / -le → “with” (instrumental, temporary)
  • adamla → with the man
• -li → “having” (descriptive, inherent)
  • sütlü kahve → coffee that has milk

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Adjective vs Predicate Order

• sütlü kahve → milk coffee (classification)
• kahve sütlü → the coffee is milky (description)

Word order changes information structure, not grammar.

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Accusative + Property Attachment

• çorbayı tuzlu

Marks which object receives the property.

“Salt this soup.”

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Possession vs Existence

• oda var → there is a room
• odalidir → it has a room

Use -li when something is defined by what it has.