Turkish Locative Case: -de, -da, -te, -ta Explained
How the Turkish locative suffix works — vowel harmony, consonant assimilation, the apostrophe with proper nouns, and why the separate word 'de' is not the same thing.
Turkish grammar
Clear, example-led explanations of Turkish suffixes, cases and conjugations.
A1
Turkish Past Tense: -di, -dı, -du, -dü Explained
How the Turkish definite past works — four-way vowel harmony, consonant assimilation, the person endings, and how it differs from the reported past.
Turkish Plural Suffix: -ler and -lar Explained
How the Turkish plural suffix works — the two-way vowel harmony that picks -ler or -lar, why a noun stays singular after a number, and why the l never hardens to t.
Turkish Personal Pronouns and Pro-Drop Explained
The six Turkish subject pronouns — ben, sen, o, biz, siz, onlar — and why the verb ending lets you drop the pronoun, when to add it back for emphasis, and why o carries no gender.
Turkish Present Copula: How to Say 'To Be'
How Turkish forms the present-tense copula with no verb "to be" — the six person endings, their four-way vowel harmony, the buffer -y- after a vowel, the zero third person versus -dır, and negation with değil.
Turkish var and yok: There Is, There Isn't, and Have
How Turkish expresses existence with var and yok — why a location takes the locative, how possession works with no verb "to have", and how the question particle asks whether something is there.
Turkish Demonstratives: bu, şu, o Explained
How the Turkish demonstratives work — the three degrees bu, şu and o, why the same word never changes before a noun but takes case when it stands alone, and the buffer n that appears before every case and plural ending (bunu, buna, bunlar).
Turkish Accusative Case: -ı, -i, -u, -ü Explained
How the Turkish accusative suffix works — when a direct object takes it, four-way vowel harmony, the -y- buffer after a vowel, consonant softening, and the apostrophe with proper nouns.
Turkish Dative Case: -e, -a, -ye, -ya Explained
How the Turkish dative suffix works — the two-way vowel harmony that picks -e or -a, the -y- buffer after a vowel, the p/ç/t/k softening in kitaba, the verbs that govern it, and the suppletive datives bana and sana.
Turkish Ablative Case: -den, -dan, -ten, -tan Explained
How the Turkish ablative suffix works — the vowel harmony that picks -den or -dan, the hardening to -ten or -tan after a voiceless consonant, and how the case marks source, material, cause, and the standard of comparison.
Turkish Genitive Case: -in and -nin Explained
How the Turkish genitive marks the possessor: four-way vowel harmony, the buffer -n- after a vowel, the pronoun forms, and why a word like evin can mean both "of the house" and "your house".
Turkish Possessive Suffixes: -im, -in, -i Explained
How the Turkish possessive suffixes attach an owner to a noun — the four-way vowel harmony that shapes the linking vowel, why that vowel drops after a vowel while the third person gains an -s-, and why evi means both "his house" and "the house".
Turkish Noun Compounds: izafet Explained
How Turkish joins two nouns into a compound — the possessive -(s)ı that marks the second noun, when the first noun takes the genitive -(n)ın, the two kinds (a generic type versus a specific owner), and the buffer -n- before a case ending.
Turkish Present Continuous Tense: The -Iyor Suffix
How the Turkish present continuous -Iyor works — the four-way buffer vowel, the stem vowel that drops before it, the person endings, and using it for the near future.
Turkish Question Particle: mı, mi, mu, mü Explained
How the Turkish yes-no question particle works — the four-way vowel harmony that picks mı, mi, mu or mü, why it is a separate written word, how a person ending joins it, and how its position sets the focus of the question.
Turkish Question Words: kim, ne, nerede, nasıl
How Turkish forms wh-questions — the question word stays where the answer would go, takes noun case endings like kime and nereden, and the verb decides which case it carries.
Turkish Instrumental: ile and -la / -le Explained
How the Turkish instrumental works — the postposition ile and its clitic -la / -le, the two-way harmony that picks them, the -y- buffer after a vowel, and how the pronouns take it on their possessive stem.
Turkish -li and -siz Suffixes: With and Without
How Turkish builds adjectives from nouns with -li ("with, having") and -siz ("without"): the four-way vowel harmony that runs across both, why the l and the s never harden, and how -li also means "from a place".