Turkish Reflexive Voice: -in and -n Verbs Explained
How the Turkish reflexive voice turns an action back on the subject — the -in ending after a consonant with its four-way harmony, the bare -n after a vowel, everyday verbs like giyinmek and yıkanmak, and how it splits from the passive look-alike and the pronoun kendi.
Ekle ·
The reflexive voice folds a verb's action back onto the subject, so the one doing it and the one it is done to are the same person — all carried by a single ending on the verb.
What the reflexive voice does
The reflexive voice is a verb form, not a separate word. A single ending on the stem says the subject acts on itself, so where English reaches for "myself" or "herself" or a phrase like "get dressed", Turkish folds that meaning straight into the verb: giyinmek is "to get dressed" and yıkanmak is "to wash oneself".
Every one of these verbs starts life as an ordinary transitive verb — one that needs an object. Add the ending and the object folds into the subject: taramak "to comb (someone's hair)" becomes taranmak "to comb one's own hair". The doer is now also the one who receives the action.
How the ending is chosen
The ending has two shapes, and the last sound of the stem decides which. After a consonant it is -in, a full syllable with a vowel of its own. After a vowel it is the bare consonant -n, which simply clips onto the stem.
| Last stem vowel | After a consonant | After a vowel |
|---|---|---|
| a · ı | -ın | -n |
| e · i | -in | -n |
| o · u | -un | -n |
| ö · ü | -ün | -n |
The vowel inside the consonant ending copies both the front/back and the rounded/unrounded quality of the stem's last vowel, so it turns up in all four shapes — -ın, -in, -un, -ün. After a vowel there is no such vowel to harmonise: the ending stays the single consonant -n every time.
Building the verb
On a stem that ends in a consonant, the four-way -in goes straight on. giymek "to put on" gives giyinmek, soymak "to undress someone" gives soyunmak, and örtmek "to cover" gives örtünmek — each ending picked by the stem's own vowel.
On a stem that ends in a vowel, only the bare -n is added. taramak "to comb" gives taranmak, and hazırlamak "to prepare" gives hazırlanmak — the vowel of the stem stays put and the -n rides on the end.
Five worked verbs
Read each of these as "do something to oneself". The stem is the plain transitive verb; the ending turns the action inward.
| Turkish | Parts | English |
|---|---|---|
| yıkanmak | yıka + n + mak | to wash oneself, to bathe |
| giyinmek | giy + in + mek | to get dressed |
| soyunmak | soy + un + mak | to undress, to get undressed |
| örtünmek | ört + ün + mek | to cover oneself up |
| taranmak | tara + n + mak | to comb one's hair |
Reflexive against the passive
The passive voice can look just like the reflexive. Its usual ending is -il, but after a vowel the passive also collapses to a bare -n — the very ending the reflexive uses there. So a vowel-final stem yields one form for two voices: yıkanmak is both "to wash oneself" and "to be washed", and only the sentence around it tells them apart.
On a consonant stem the two voices part ways. The reflexive of giymek is giyinmek "to get dressed", built with -in; its passive is giyilmek "to be worn", built with -il. One points the action back at the wearer, the other says the clothing is worn by someone unnamed.
Where a verb has no reflexive reading at all, the bare -n can only be passive: okunmak means "to be read", never "to read oneself". The test is the meaning — a reflexive always says "oneself", a passive says "gets done".
The voice against the pronoun
Turkish has a second way to say "oneself": the reflexive pronoun kendi. With it the verb stays plain and transitive, and the pronoun carries the reflexive meaning as a separate object. So "she washed herself" can be yıkandı — the reflexive voice, one word — or kendini yıkadı, the plain verb yıkamak with the pronoun in front.
The one-word voice is limited to a small set of self-care verbs and sounds most natural there. The pronoun kendi is the general tool: it works with any transitive verb and it adds weight — "she washed her own self". Where both are possible, yıkandı is the everyday choice and kendini yıkadı is the emphatic or contrastive one.
Verbs of daily self-care
The reflexive voice clusters around the daily routine — washing, grooming, dressing, getting ready. This is where a learner meets it most, so the handful of verbs is worth knowing as a set: a morning might run yıkandı "washed up", then taranmak and hazırlanmak.
| Turkish | Parts | English |
|---|---|---|
| yıkandı | yıka + n + dı | he/she washed (up) |
| taranmak | tara + n + mak | to comb one's hair |
| hazırlanmak | hazırla + n + mak | to get ready |
Frequently asked questions
- What is the reflexive voice in Turkish?
- It is a verb form in which the subject acts on itself — the doer and the undergoer are the same person. A single ending on the stem carries the meaning English gives with "myself", "herself" or a phrase like "get dressed": giyinmek is "to get dressed" and yıkanmak is "to wash oneself". The base is an ordinary transitive verb, and the ending turns its action back on the subject.
- When does the reflexive ending appear as -in and when as -n?
- It depends on the last sound of the stem. After a consonant the ending is the full syllable -in, which harmonises four ways with the stem's last vowel — -ın, -in, -un, -ün. After a vowel it is the bare consonant -n, with no vowel of its own: taramak gives taranmak and hazırlamak gives hazırlanmak.
- How can I tell the reflexive from the passive when they look the same?
- By the meaning, and by the stem. The passive usually ends in -il, but after a vowel it collapses to the same bare -n the reflexive uses, so yıkanmak can mean either "to wash oneself" (reflexive) or "to be washed" (passive), and context decides. On a consonant stem they separate: giyinmek with -in is "to get dressed", while giyilmek with -il is "to be worn". A reflexive always means "oneself"; a passive means "gets done".
- What is the difference between the reflexive voice and the pronoun kendi?
- Both say the subject acts on itself, but they build it differently. The reflexive voice packs the meaning into the verb with a single ending: yıkandı is "she washed herself" in one word. The pronoun kendi leaves the verb plain and transitive and adds a separate reflexive object — kendini yıkadı, from yıkamak, says the same thing with emphasis. The one-word voice is limited to a few self-care verbs; the pronoun works with any transitive verb.