Grammar

Basic word order in Turkish is subject-object-verb

Unlike in English, Turkish verbs have no masculine or feminine gender i.e. There is no difference
between "he" and "she". Eg.
He is walking - O yürüyor
She is walking - O yürüyor

Click on a topic below to view a basic explanation of the related language rules as well as
examples.

 Alphabet
 I am, You are
 Numbers
 Plurals
 Possession
 Var and Yok
 Telling The Time
 Consonant Mutation
 Degrees Of Comparison
 Vowel Harmony

Alphabet
he Turkish alphabet is a modified version of the Latin alphabet and consists of 29 letters. Included
are 6 additional letters - ç, ğ, ı, ö, ş, ü - while - q, w, x - are excluded.

Vowels: a, e, ı, i, o, ö, u, ü
Consonants: b, c, ç, d, f, g, ğ, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, ş, t, v, y, z

PRONUNCIATION
Most Turkish letters are similar in pronunciation to their English counterparts. There are a few
letters however whose pronunciation is unique to Turkish.

"Yumuşak ge" (Ğ ğ) or "soft g" for example always follows a vowel and is pronounced in one of two
ways. If the vowel before it is one of a, ı, o, u then "yumuşak ge" will lengthen the sound of that
vowel, eg. yağmur, ağaç. If the vowel is one of e, i, ö, ü then "yumuşak ge" will be pronounced as
"y", eg. eğitim, iğne. Since "yumuşak ge" is always preceded by a vowel there are no words in
Turkish that start with it.

I Am, You Are

To say "I am", "You are", "He is" etc. in English we use a personal pronoun and a noun/adjective.
For example: "I am a doctor", "I" is the personal pronoun and "doctor" is the noun.

For Turkish, we use a personal pronoun, a noun/adjective and a personal suffix. For example:
"Ben doktorum", "Ben" is the personal pronoun, "doktor" is the noun and "-um" is the personal
suffix. The personal pronoun and the personal suffix are associated with each other.

There are four cases to be considered:

1. Positive (Eg. I am a doctor)

2. Negative (Eg. I am not a doctor)
3. Positive Question (Eg. Am I a doctor?)
4. Negative Question (Eg. Am I not a doctor?)
 Personal pronouns

I Ben

You Sen

He / She /
O
It

We Biz

You
Siz
(Plural)

They Onlar

POSITIVE

Each personal suffix has more than one form(spelling). We choose the correct form of the personal
suffix based on the last vowel of the noun/adjective. This is done to preserve vowel harmony:
Personal suffixes for positive

Last Vowel ▶ a/ı e/i o/u ö/ü

Ben -[y]ım -[y]im -[y]um -[y]üm
Sen -sın -sin -sun -sün
O        
Biz -[y]ız [y]iz -[y]uz -[y]üz
Siz -sınız -siniz -sunuz -sünüz
Onlar -lar -ler -lar -ler
Examples:
doktor - doctor güzel - beautiful
Ben doktorum I am a doctor Ben güzelim I am beautiful
Sen doktorsun You are a doctor Sen güzelsin You are beautiful
O doktor He/she/it is a doctor O güzel He/she/it is beautifu
Biz doktoruz We are doctors Biz güzeliz We are beautiful
Siz doktorsunuz You are doctors Siz güzelsiniz You are beautiful
Onlar doktorlar They are doctors Onlar güzeller They are beautiful
For "Biz", if the last letter of the noun/adjective is a vowel we add the buffer
letter "y" to prevent having two vowels side by side. Eg.:
baba - father kötü - bad
Ben babayım I am a father Ben kötüyüm I am bad
 Sen babasın You are a father Sen kötüsün You are bad
O baba He/it is a father O kötü He/she/it is bad
Biz babayız We are fathers Biz kötüyüz We are bad
Siz babasınız You are fathers Siz kötüsünüz You are bad
Onlar babalar They are fathers Onlar kötüler They are bad

NEGATIVE

For negative we attach our personal suffixes to the word "değil"(not):

"değil" with personal suffixes for negative

Ben değilim

Sen değilsin

O değil

Biz değiliz

Siz değilsiniz

Onlar değiller

Examples:
doktor - doctor güzel - beautiful

Ben doktor değilim I am not a doctor Ben güzel değilim I am not beautiful

Sen doktor değilsin You are not a doctor Sen güzel değilsin You are not beautiful

He/she/it is not a
O doktor değil O güzel değil She/it is not beautiful
doctor

Biz doktor değiliz We are not doctors Biz güzel değiliz We are not beautiful

Siz doktor değilsiniz You are not doctors Siz güzel değilsiniz You are not beautiful

Onlar doktor değiller They are not doctors Onlar güzel değiller They are not beautiful
 NEGATIVE QUESTION

Negative questions combine "değil" and "mi" to give "değil mi". The personal suffixes get attached
to "mi". Unlike the positive question, for the negative question "mi" has only one form (and not
four) for each personal suffix:

"değil mi" with personal suffixes for the negative question

Ben değil miyim

Sen değil misin

O değil mi

Biz değil miyiz

Siz değil misiniz

Onlar değiller mi

Examples:
doktor - doctor güzel - beautiful

Ben doktor değil miyim? Am I not a doctor? Ben güzel değil miyim? Am I not beautiful?

Sen doktor değil misin? Are you not a doctor? Sen güzel değil misin? Are you not beautiful?

Is he/she/it not a Is he/she/it not

O doktor değil mi? O güzel değil mi?
doctor? beautiful?

Biz doktor değil miyiz? Are we not doctors? Biz güzel değil miyiz? Are we not beautiful?

Siz doktor değil misiniz Are you not doctors? Siz güzel değil misiniz? Are you not beautiful?

Onlar doktor değiller mi? Are they not doctors? Onlar güzel değiller mi? Are they not beautiful?

Numbers
1 - Bir 10 - On 1 000 - Bin

2 - İki 20 - Yirmi 1 000 000 - Milyon

3 - Üç 30 - Otuz 1 000 000 000 - Milyar

4 - Dört 40 - Kırk  

5 - Beş 50 - Elli 0 - Sıfır

 6 - Altı 60 - Atmış  

7 - Yedi 70 - Yetmiş  

8 - Sekiz 80 - Seksen  

9 - Dokuz 90 - Doksan  

10 - On 100 - Yüz  

Examples:
11 - On bir
57 - Elli yedi
82 - Seksen iki
144 - Yüz kırk dört
500 - Beş yüz
999 - Dokuz yüz doksan dokuz
1024 - Bin yirmi dört
1986 - Bin dokuz yüz seksen altı
2016 - İki bin on altı

Plurals
The plural suffixes in Turkish are -lar and -ler. We use the rules of Major Vowel Harmony to decide
which suffix to use. Words whose last vowel is one of (a, ı, o, u) will get -lar added to it, while
those whose last vowel is one of (e, i, ö, ü) will be followed by -ler.

Last Vowel Suffix

a, ı, o, u -lar

e, i, ö, ü -ler

Examples:
Araba - Arabalar (Car - Cars)
Kapı - Kapılar (Door - Doors)
Top - Toplar (Ball - Balls)
Soru - Sorular (Question - Questions)

Kalem - Kalemler (Pen - Pens)

Cami - Camiler (Mosque - Mosques)
Göz - Gözler (Eye - Eyes)
Türk - Türkler (Turk - Turks)

Possession
Possession in Turkish works using pronouns and suffixes. Each pronoun is associated with its own
suffix. The suffixes may take on different forms depending on the last letter and the last vowel of
the original word. There are six pronouns of possession:

Pronouns of Possession

My Benim

Your Senin
 His / Her / Its Onun

Our Bizim

Your (Plural) Sizin

Their Onların

Each suffix has more than one form. We choose the correct form of the suffix based on the last
vowel of our original word. This is done to preserve Vowel Harmony.

Suffixes of Possession

Last Vowel ▶ a/ı e/i o/u ö/ü

Benim -(ı)m -(i)m -(u)m -(ü)m

Senin -(ı)n -(i)n -(u)n -(ü)n

Onun -[s]ı -[s]i -[s]u -[s]ü

Bizim -(ı)mız -(i)miz -(u)muz -(ü)müz

Sizin -(ı)nız -(i)niz -(u)nuz -(ü)nüz

Onların -ları -leri -ları -leri

Examples:
Benim çantam - My bag
Senin annen - Your mother
Onun topu - His/Her/Its ball
Bizim arabamız - Our car
Sizin kuzunuz - Your (Plural) lamb
Onların kitapları - Their book

When adding suffixes to a word, we make sure that we never have two vowels side-by-side.

Letters indicated inside round brackets () in the Suffixes of Possession table should be added when
the last letter of the original word is a consonant. Eg.:
Adım - My name
Evin - Your house
Otelimiz - Our hotel
Okulunuz - Your (Plural) school
For "Onun", the letter "s" indicated inside square brackets [s] in the Suffixes of Possession table
above should be added when the last letter of the original word is a vowel. Eg.:
Onun parası - His/Her/Its money
Onun dedesi - His/Her/Its grandfather
Onun havlusu - His/Her/Its towel

Var And Yok

In Turkish, "var" and "yok" are used to express the presence and absence of things. There are no
direct English equivalents so understanding these concepts are important in learning Turkish. "Var"
and "yok" are generally placed at the end of the sentence. There are four cases to be considered:

1. Positive - Var
2. Negative - Yok
3. Positive Question - Var mı
4. Negative Question - Yok mu

1. POSITIVE - VAR
Var basically means "there is".
Examples:
Garajda araba var - There is a car in the garage
Parkta çoçuk var - There is a child in the park
Futbol sahasında top var - There is a ball on the football field
Trende yolcu var - There is a passenger on the train
Camide müezzin var - There is a muezzin in the mosque

2. NEGATIVE - YOK
Yok is used to mean "there isn't".
Examples:
Garajda araba yok - There isn't a car in the garage
Parkta çoçuk yok - There isn't a child in the park
Futbol sahasında top yok - There isn't a ball on the football field
Trende yolcu yok - There isn't a passenger on the train
Camide müezzin yok - There isn't a muezzin in the mosque

3. POSITIVE QUESTION - VAR MI

In Turkish we use the different forms of "mi" to form questions ("mı"/"mi"/"mu"/"mü"). By
applying the rules of vowel harmony we add "mı" to "var" to get the positive question form var mı.
Examples:
Garajda araba var mı? - Is there a car in the garage?
Parkta çoçuk var mı? - Is there a child in the park?
Futbol sahasında top var mı? - Is there is a ball on the football field?
Trende yolcu var mı? - Is there is a passenger on the train?
Camide müezzin var mı? - Is there is a muezzin in the mosque?

4. NEGATIVE QUESTION - YOK MU

To form the negative question form we add "mu" to "yok" to get yok mu.
Examples:
Garajda araba yok mu? - Isn't there a car in the garage?
Parkta çoçuk yok mu? - Isn't there a child in the park?
Futbol sahasında top yok mu? - Isn't there a ball on the football field?
Trende yolcu yok mu? - Isn't there a passenger on the train?
Camide müezzin yok mu? - Isn't there a muezzin in the mosque?

Telling The Time

There are generally two ways of telling the time in Turkish:

1. As an answer to the question "What is the time?"

2. By specifying "At what time(?)" something will happen

Both rules make use of vowel harmony.

1. What is the time? - Saat kaç?

This is used when we want to tell the current time.
On the hour:
["Saat"] [hour]
03:00 : Saat üç
05:00 : Saat beş
10:00 : Saat on
18:00 : Saat altı
21:00 : Saat dokuz
Quarter past:
["Saat"] [hour + "ı/i/u/ü"] ["çeyrek geçiyor"]
03:15 : Saat üçü çeyrek geçiyor
05:15 : Saat beşi çeyrek geçiyor
10:15 : Saat onu çeyrek geçiyor
18:15 : Saat altıyı çeyrek geçiyor
21:15 : Saat dokuzu çeyrek geçiyor
Half past:
["Saat"] [hour] ["buçuk"]
03:30 : Saat üç buçuk
05:30 : Saat beş buçuk
10:30 : Saat on buçuk
18:30 : Saat altı buçuk
21:30 : Saat dokuz buçuk
Quarter to:
["Saat"] [hour + "a/e"] ["çeyrek var"]
03:45 : Saat dörde çeyrek var
05:45 : Saat altıya çeyrek var
10:45 : Saat on bire çeyrek var
18:45 : Saat yediye çeyrek var
21:45 : Saat ona çeyrek var
Examples
The time is 09:00 - Saat dokuz
The time is 13:15 - Saat biri çeyrek geçiyor
The time is 15:30 - Saat üç buçuk
The time is 23:45 - Saat on ikiye çeyrek var

2. At what time? - Saat kaçta?

We use this to specify the time at which something will happen or take place.

On the hour:
["Saat"] [hour + "da/de/ta/te"]
03:00 : Saat üçte
05:00 : Saat beşte
10:00 : Saat onda
18:00 : Saat altıda
21:00 : Saat dokuzda
Quarter past:
["Saat"] [hour + "ı/i/u/ü"] ["çeyrek geçe"]
03:15 : Saat üçü çeyrek geçe
05:15 : Saat beşi çeyrek geçe
10:15 : Saat onu çeyrek geçe
18:15 : Saat altıyı çeyrek geçe
21:15 : Saat dokuzu çeyrek geçe
Half past:
["Saat"] [hour] ["buçukta"]
03:30 : Saat üç buçukta
05:30 : Saat beş buçukta
10:30 : Saat on buçukta
18:30 : Saat altı buçukta
21:30 : Saat dokuz buçukta
Quarter to:
["Saat"] [hour + "a/e"] ["çeyrek kala"]
03:45 : Saat dörde çeyrek kala
05:45 : Saat altıya çeyrek kala
10:45 : Saat on bire çeyrek kala
18:45 : Saat yediye çeyrek kala
21:45 : Saat ona çeyrek kala
Examples
Lessons start at 09:00 - Ders saat dokuzda başlar
The bell rings at 13:15 - Zil saat biri çeyrek geçe çalar
Azan is at 15:30 - Ezan saat üç buçukta okunur
The match ends at 23:45 - Maç saat on ikiye çeyrek kala biter

Consonant Mutation
In Turkish, there are certain consonants that are replaced by other letters when suffixes are added
to them.

When we add a suffix to word that ends in "p/ç/t/k" and the consonant has a vowel both before
and after it, the consonant will change:

p ➨ b
ç ➨ c
t ➨ d
k ➨ ğ/g

Examples:

(kitap) Benim kitabım - My book

(dolap) Dolaba koydum - I put it into the cupboard

(ağaç) Ağaca bak - Look at the tree

(borç) Borcum ne kadar? - How much do I owe?

(yoğurt) Hakan yoğurdu yedi - Hakan ate the yogurt

(dört) Saat dörde çeyrek var - The time is a quarter to four

(sözlük) İngilizce-Türkçe sözlüğün var mı? - Do you have an English-Turkish dictionary?

(çocuk) Fatih çocuğa şeker verdi - Fatih gave candy to the child

The letter "k" is replaced by a "g" instead of a "ğ" when it has a "n" before it and a vowel after it:

(renk) Göz rengi - Eye color

(kepenk) Ömer kepengi kapattı - Ömer closed the shutter

EXCEPTIONS
In general, single syllable words don't have consonant mutation applied to them:

(top) Benim topum - My ball

(koç) Çobanın koçu - The shepherd's goat
(süt) Sütü bardağa dök - Pour the milk into the glass

Words that are derived from other languages (French, English, Arabic, etc.) don't experience any
consonant mutation:

(bilet) Biletini unutma - Don't forget your ticket

(internet) İnterneti her gün kullanıyorum - I use the internet everyday
(hukuk) İslam hukuku - Islamic law

Proper nouns such as names of people or places also do not change:

(Zeynep) Zeynep'e kalem verdim - I gave Zeynep a pen

(Haliç) Haliç'e gittik - We went to the Golden Horn
(Tokat) Tokat'ın nüfusu - The population of Tokat
 Degrees Of Comparison

We use Degrees of Comparison to compare people, places or things. An adjective can have one of
three forms: Positive, Comparitive or Superlative. For example, for the adjective "big" the Positive
form would be "big" itself, the Comparitive form would be "bigger" and the Superlative form
would be "biggest".
In Turkish, we express the Comparitive form using "daha" and the Superlative form using "en".
For example, for the adjective "büyük" the Positive form would be "büyük" itself, the Comparitive
form would be "daha büyük" and the Superlative form would be "en büyük".
Examples:

Positive Comparitive Superlative

büyük daha büyük en büyük

big bigger biggest

küçük daha küçük en küçük

small smaller smallest

hızlı daha hızlı en hızlı

fast faster fastest

kolay daha kolay en kolay

easy easier easiest

iyi daha iyi en iyi

good better best

genç daha genç en genç

young younger youngest

 Vowel Harmony
In Turkish, words are constructed in such a way that the vowels follow a specific pattern. This
pattern is called Vowel Harmony and is an important feature of the Turkish language. Vowel
Harmony is used particularly when deciding which vowels should be used when adding a suffix to a
word. By looking at a particular vowel in a word (usually the last vowel), the rules of Vowel
Harmony help us to decide which vowels will be used after it. In order to understand Vowel
Harmony we have to look at the different types of vowels that exist in Turkish:

Vowels: a, e, ı, i, o, ö, u, ü

Hard vowels: a, ı, o, u
Soft vowels: e, i, ö, ü
Straight vowels: a, e, ı, i
Round vowels: o, ö, u, ü

There are four Vowel Harmony rules in total: two Major Vowel Harmony and two Minor Vowel
Harmony rules.

MAJOR VOWEL HARMONY

Part 1: Hard vowels
If the last vowel of a word is one of a/ı/o/u, vowels in the suffixes that follow it can only be one of
a/ı/o/u.

a / ı / o / u ➨ a / ı / o / u

Part 2: Soft vowels

If the last vowel of a word is one of e/i/ö/ü, vowels in the suffixes that follow it can only be one of
e/i/ö/ü.

e / i / ö / ü ➨ e / i / ö / ü

MINOR VOWEL HARMONY

Part 1: Straight vowels
If the last vowel of a word is one of a/e/ı/i, vowels in the suffixes that follow it can only be one of
a/e/ı/i.

a / e / ı / i ➨ a / e / ı / i

Part 2: Round vowels

If the last vowel of a word is one of o/ö/u/ü, vowels in the suffixes that follow it can only be one of
a/e/u/ü.

o / ö / u / ü ➨ a / e / u / ü