Turkish -ken Suffix: While, As, When Explained
How the Turkish converb -ken works — "while, as, when", why it never takes vowel harmony, how it rides on the aorist stem in gelirken or drops straight onto a noun with the buffer -yken in öğrenciyken, and its use for a background action and for "on the way".
Ekle ·
This converb turns a verb or a noun into a background clause — it marks one thing as going on while another happens, and it keeps one fixed shape no matter the vowels around it.
Saying while and as
Turkish packs "while coming" into a single word. The suffix -ken rides on the end of a verb and marks it as the background — the thing that was under way when something else happened. gelirken is "while coming", "as one comes".
It sits on nouns and adjectives just as readily: çocukken is "when I was a child". Beyond plain simultaneity the same converb can set two situations against each other, a "whereas", which the uses lower down both draw on.
Built on the aorist stem
The usual base for -ken is the aorist, the general-present stem. Take gelir "he comes", add the suffix, and you get gelirken "while coming"; okur "he reads" gives okurken "while reading".
| Stem vowel | Suffix | Result |
|---|---|---|
| e · i · ö · ü | -ken | gelirken |
| a · ı · o · u | -ken | okurken |
The two rows differ only in front of the suffix. The aorist vowel harmonises with the stem, so a front stem gives gelirken and a back stem gives okurken. The suffix -ken itself is identical in both rows, and that fixity is its signature.
Onto nouns and adjectives
The same suffix drops straight onto a noun or an adjective, where it means "while being" something. çocuk "child" gives çocukken "when I was a child". When the word ends in a vowel, the buffer -yken steps in so two vowels never collide, so öğrenci "student" becomes öğrenciyken.
| Base word | Suffix | Result |
|---|---|---|
| çocuk | -ken | çocukken |
| öğrenci | -yken | öğrenciyken |
On a noun the suffix is really the converb of the linking verb "to be". öğrenciyken is a tight contraction of öğrenci iken, and the -yken buffer is where its glide comes from; both say "while a student".
Worked verb forms
Read each of these as a background action — something under way when the main event lands.
| Turkish | Parts | English |
|---|---|---|
| gelirken | gel + ir + ken | while coming, as one comes |
| okurken | oku + r + ken | while reading |
| çalışırken | çalış + ır + ken | while working |
Worked nominal forms
These sit on a noun or an adjective and set the scene as a state — "back when I was ...".
| Turkish | Parts | English |
|---|---|---|
| çocukken | çocuk + ken | when I was a child |
| öğrenciyken | öğrenci + y + ken | when I was a student |
| küçükken | küçük + ken | when I was little |
The ending never harmonises
Almost every Turkish suffix bends to vowel harmony. This one does not. Whatever the vowels of the stem, the suffix stays -ken and never shifts its own vowel. A back-vowel stem like okur still takes plain -ken to give okurken, and the harmonised-looking gelirkan that the pattern seems to predict is simply not a word — the real form is gelirken.
One action during another
The core job of -ken is simultaneity: it frames the clause that was going on when something else happened. Ben çalışırken o uyuyordu is "while I was working, he was sleeping" — çalışırken holds the background and uyuyordu the foreground.
| Turkish | Parts | English |
|---|---|---|
| çalışırken | çalış + ır + ken | while I was working |
On the way there
A very common turn pairs -ken with a verb of motion to mean "on the way". eve giderken is "on the way home" — literally "while going home" — and giderken on its own is "while going", "as one goes".
| Turkish | Parts | English |
|---|---|---|
| giderken | gid + er + ken | while going, on the way |
Frequently asked questions
- Does -ken take vowel harmony?
- No — it is one of the very few invariant suffixes in Turkish. It stays -ken on every stem, front or back: gelirken and okurken both end the same way. The harmonised-looking gelirkan is not a real form.
- When do you use -yken instead of -ken?
- When the word before it ends in a vowel. A vowel-final noun takes the buffer form -yken so two vowels do not meet: öğrenci gives öğrenciyken. A consonant-final word takes plain -ken, as in çocukken.
- Can -ken attach to a noun?
- Yes. On a noun or an adjective it means "while being" that thing: çocukken is "when I was a child", küçükken "when I was little". There it is the converb of the verb "to be", so öğrenciyken is the same as öğrenci iken.
- Does -ken mean 'while' or 'when'?
- Both, depending on the base. On an ongoing action it reads as "while" or "as": gelirken "while coming", eve giderken "on the way home". On a past state it reads as "when": çocukken "when I was a child".