Are you a non-native Turkish speaker? And are you planning to study or work in Turkey? Do you need to have a competitive advantage when applying for a job or university?

If you answered “Yes” to some or all of these questions, then you’re reading the right article!

We’ll clue you in on the best Turkish language proficiency test to help you achieve your goals as a language-learner and test your Turkish language proficiency.

Table of Contents

1. General Information About the Turkish Proficiency Exam
2. Listening Test
3. Reading Test
4. Writing Test
5. Speaking Test
6. How to Pass the Turkish Proficiency Exam
7. FAQs
8. TurkishClass101 is the Road to TYS

1. General Information About the Turkish Proficiency Exam

The Turkish proficiency exam we’re going to talk about today is the TYS, Türkçe Yeterlik Sınavı (“TPE, Turkish Proficiency Exam”).

It’s an internationally recognized exam, developed by the Yunus Emre Institute Exam Center. It’s designed according to the standards of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages to measure people’s proficiency in Turkish as a foreign or native language. In this article, we’ll concentrate on Turkish as a foreign language.

At the end of this exam, based on the number of points a test-taker gets, he or she will get the appropriate certificate for their Turkish proficiency level. These certificates help foreign students when enrolling in schools or universities. This is especially true for foreign students who get the chance to attend a Turkish university, as passing the TYS Turkish exam gives them an automatic pass for the preparation class.

In addition, taking this test helps those who want to work in a Turkish firm (either in Turkey or abroad).

Now, let’s see the content of this exam.

A- What’s inside the TYS exam?

First of all, the exam complies with the requirements of the European Language Portfolio (ELP).

It consists of four sections:

1. Reading
2. Writing
3. Listening
4. Speaking

These tests are given in three sessions:

• Reading / Listening
• Writing
• Speaking

In the exam, you have to achieve at least fifty percent success in each section, and a total between:

• 55-70 to get a B2 certificate
• 71-88 to get a C1 certificate
• 89-100 to get a C2 certificate

Results are evaluated by the experts at the Yunus Emre Institute Exam Center.

Please note that this exam is neither an A1 Turkish exam nor an A2 Turkish exam. It’s more advanced and the certification starts at the B2 level. You can take the Turkish language A1 test or the A2 Turkish exam at TOMER, Istanbul University or Anadolu University.

B- Where and when can you take the exam?

It’s given three times a year; you can check the calendar for TYS on the official website. You can take the exam not only in Turkey, but also abroad; there are 43 countries and 48 centers. Click here to see those countries and important details about the centers such as the address, phone number, and email address.

You can register online by clicking here.

2. Listening Test

The listening test contains six texts. There are thirty questions, which include fill-in-the-blanks, true/false, multiple-choice, and matching questions. The texts used in the listening test are usually dialogues, introductions, interviews, advertisements, opinion columns, academic and literary texts, reports, and analyses.

You can get up to 25 points in the listening test, and the test takes 45 minutes.

Here are some audio files and questions you can use to test yourself.

3. Reading Test

The reading test also contains six texts. The question types and the types of texts used in this section are the same as those in the listening test. However, there are forty questions in the reading section.

You can get up to 25 points in this section, and the duration is 60 minutes.

To get some practice, check out the sample questions at the official site.

4. Writing Test

The writing test has two parts. The first one measures the test-taker’s guided writing skills. For this part, you may be asked:

• To complete a text
• To complete a form
• To write a summary of a text
• To interpret a table, an image, or a graph
•  To write a petition

You can get up to 10 points in this section, and the time given is 20 minutes.

In the second part, attendees are asked to write an original essay on a given subject. This one is worth 15 points and lasts for 40 minutes.

The writing test is usually evaluated by at least two experts.

Visit the official website to see some sample questions.

5. Speaking Test

This test also consists of two parts. In the independent speaking section, the candidate is given a subject and one to three minutes to get prepared. After he or she completes his/her preparation, they can begin speaking. The candidates are given approximately 5 minutes to talk.

This part is worth 10 points. This link will give you an idea about the subjects you can expect during the speaking test.

The second part is in the form of a conversation. The candidate is given a subject, about which an interviewer will ask various questions for the candidate to answer. The expected time is 10 minutes.

This part is worth 15 points.

The speaking test is usually evaluated by at least two experts.

Here, you can review a sample topic that can be asked about in the exam.

6. How to Pass the Turkish Proficiency Exam

In order to pass the Turkish test, there are things you need to do before and during the test.

You need to study Turkish grammar and try to expand your vocabulary by reading Turkish blogs, articles, and newspapers. This will not only help you with your vocabulary, but it will also help you understand Turkish better.

You can also practice writing about different subjects and have a native speaker correct the text for you. In addition, talking to native speakers is a great way to improve your speaking skills.

In order to improve your listening and comprehension skills, you can listen to Turkish radio channels or watch TV, videos, and movies in Turkish.

Of course, it’s also a good idea to practice the sample questions provided on the official website of the TYS exam, some of which we’ve referred to in this article.

Now, here are some tips you can apply during the Turkish test to help you succeed:

• Use the time effectively during the test.
• Read the instructions very carefully.
• Read the provided texts and the questions carefully.
• Be alert.
  • There may be tricky questions where you need to understand the language’s nuances.
  • Some idioms might be used, and they may confuse you.
  • There might be multi-part-questions, so be careful not to accidentally skip them.
• In the writing and speaking tests, you can create quick outlines, bullet points, and make notes of some examples you can think of.
• Make sure to review what you wrote as the time allows you to. If you can use your time effectively, this shouldn’t be a problem.

7. FAQs

There are some FAQs on the official website of this Turkish language proficiency test. We’ll outline a few of them here:

1. How much do I have to pay for the Turkish language test?

You can find information about the fees on their website.

2. Are there any discounts? If yes, under which circumstances, and how much can I get?

Below are the circumstances under which you can get a discount:

• Those who are registered for the Turkish language courses at Yunus Emre Institute get a 50% discount.
• The staff of Yunus Emre Institute gets a 50% discount.
• Students who are registered for the Turcology departments of foreign universities with whom Yunus Emre Institute has a cooperation protocol get a 50% discount. Students who are registered at other departments in these universities get a 25% discount.
• Students who are abroad but enrolled in the Turkish system of education foundation get a 50% discount.
•  Local staff of the representation offices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Education, TIKA, Anadolu Agency, Ministry of Religious Affairs, Turkish Red Crescent, Turkish Airlines, and the Ministry of Education Foundation of Turkey abroad get a 50% discount.

 3. When are the results announced?

The results are announced fifteen days after the date of the exam.

4.  For how long is the certificate valid?

It’s valid for two years.

5.  I lost my certificate. What should I do?

Candidates who lose their certificate can request a new one only once by writing a letter to the center where they took the exam. However, they have to pay the printing fee, which is 20% of the exam fee.

6. When should I be at the center on the day of the exam?

You have to be at the exam center at least half an hour before the exam.

7. Do I need to bring anything with me on the day of the exam?

You have to have your ID or passport and the exam entry document. You can have water only if it’s in a transparent plastic bottle. Watches, mobile phones, pagers, calculators, purses, etc., are strictly prohibited. Every classroom has a clock so that the candidates can check the time during the Turkish language test.

8. I missed the exam. What will happen to my registration?

The registration of a candidate who didn’t or couldn’t attend the Turkish test, will be canceled and the fee will not be refunded.

8. TurkishClass101 is the Road to TYS

Now you know all about the Turkish language proficiency test and what to expect.

Make sure to start with the A1 Turkish exam and the A2 Turkish exam. Then, once you’re comfortable at those levels, you can aim for the TYS.

Practicing the sample questions will definitely help. However, before doing that, you need to build a strong grammar infrastructure, improve your vocabulary, and practice outside of the test’s bounds.

Don’t lose any time; visit TurkishClass101.com now. To help you get ready for the exam, see our variety of vocabulary lists with audio recordings, and utilize our free resources, including our dictionary.

Don’t forget that there’s also our MyTeacher program, a premium service of TurkishClass101 that you can use to practice with a private teacher (who’s also a native speaker).

As usual, we’ll be looking forward to your feedback about your experience with us so far. Was this article helpful for you? Is there anything you still want to know about the TYS exam? Let us know in the comments. 

Good luck on the exam!

Grammar is definitely a must when you want to learn a language properly. However, it takes some time to have good command of this crucial factor. Unfortunately, life doesn’t wait for anyone. You might be in a foreign country now, and need to ask for directions or the time—you might even need to know where the closest hospital is. 

Theory doesn’t help much when you need to communicate effectively. This is where practicality kicks in. And by “practicality,” I mean certain patterns you can use in daily conversations.

In this article, we’ll show you ten different Turkish sentence patterns. We’ll start with an easy Turkish sentence pattern and move on to more complex ones. Most of the sentences that you’ll hear, write, or speak will follow these basic sentence patterns. Until you have a good grasp of grammar, the examples provided here will help you understand the basic Turkish sentence structure and sentence patterns.

They’ll not only help you express yourself better and fulfill your needs more quickly in daily life, but they’ll also enable you to speak Turkish sooner and serve as a foundation on which you can build your grammar knowledge.

Let’s get started with some Turkish sentence examples.

Table of Contents

1. Sentences Linking Two Nouns
2. Describing Things
3. Possession and Ownership
4. Expressing “Want”
5. Expressing Needs
6. Expressing Obligations
7. Likes and Dislikes
8. How to Request Something
9. Asking for Permission
10. Question Patterns
11. More Practice with TurkishClass101.com

1. Sentences Linking Two Nouns

This is an easy Turkish sentence pattern, where two nouns are linked to each other.

	Turkish	English
1	Dan benim erkek arkadaşım(dır).	“Dan is my boyfriend.”
2	Mary İngilizce öğretmeni(dir).	“Mary is an English teacher.”
3	Şu büyük ev arkadaşımın eviydi.	“That big house was my friend’s house.”
4	Bu kitap babamın doğum günü hediyesiydi.	“This book was my father’s birthday gift.”
5	Ablamın en sevdiği oyuncağı bu bebek(tir).	“My elder sister’s favorite toy is this doll.”

Please note that the third person singular pronoun doesn’t have to take the “to be” suffix; you can leave it blank. That’s why I’ve put the suffix in parentheses. You’ll encounter some more of these throughout the article.

Let’s see how you can make variations of this Turkish sentence pattern:

In all of the sentences, you can replace the subject with anything you want. For example: annem (“my mother”); bu araba (“this car”); şu kısa boylu çocuk (“that short child”).

1. In this example, erkek arkadaşım (“my boyfriend”) can be replaced with: öğretmenim (“my teacher”); babam (“my father”); ev arkadaşım (“my roommate”).

2. In the second example, İngilizce öğretmeni(dir) can be replaced with any other occupation: mühendistir (“is an engineer”); teknisyendir (“is a technician”); öğrencidir (“is a student”).

2. Describing Things

Describing people, places, things, and so on, is something we do a lot in our daily lives. There’s also an easy Turkish sentence pattern you can use to do this. Here are some examples of how to form Turkish sentences using adjectives.

1- People

Would you like to tell others what you think about the people in your life? Here you are: below are some Turkish sentence patterns you can use:

	Turkish	English
1	Kızım çok güzel(dir).	“My daughter is very pretty.”
2	Mark çok akıllı(dır).	“Mark is very smart.”
3	Rock Hudson çok yakışıklıydı.	“Rock Hudson was very handsome.”
4	Sinemada gördüğümüz çift gerçekten çok mutlu(dur).	“The couple we saw at the cinema is really very happy.”
5	Bana aldığın hediye benim için çok değerli.	“The present you bought me is very precious to me.”

You can replace the subject with any name or noun, and then you can replace the adjective accordingly.

2- Places

How about describing places in Turkish? You can use the following Turkish sentence patterns when you need to talk to someone about a certain place:

	Turkish	English
1	Bu ev çok büyük(tür).	“This house is very big.”
2	Benim odam çok karanlık(tır).	“My room is very dark.”
3	Bu cadde çok kalabalık(tır).	“This street is very crowded.”
4	Bahçemiz muhteşemdi.	“Our garden was gorgeous.”
5	Sana gösterdiğim bina çok eski(dir).	“The building I showed you is old.”

3- Things

We use so many different adjectives when talking about objects, food, feelings, etc. These are some examples of the Turkish sentence construction you can use to describe things:

	Turkish	English
1	Bu kolye çok uzun.	“This necklace is very long.”
2	Bu koltuk hiç rahat değil(dir).	“This armchair is not comfortable at all.”
3	Sınav gerçekten zordu.	“The exam was really hard.”
4	Tatlı çok lezzetliydi.	“The dessert was delicious.”
5	Dün aldığın gömlek çok şık.	“The shirt you bought yesterday is very trendy.”

3. Possession and Ownership

We frequently talk about what we have or what we own. Here are some examples of the Turkish language sentence structures for talking about possession and ownership:

	Turkish	English
1	Büyük bir ailem var.	“I have a big family.”
2	Bir evim ve iki arabam vardı.	“I had a house and two cars.” (“I owned a house and two cars.”)
3	Hiç vaktim yok.	“I don’t have any time.”
4	Senin beğendiğin o kitap bende yok.	“I don’t have that book you liked.”
5	Alışveriş merkezine yürüme mesafesinde bir ofisim var.	“I have an office within walking distance of the shopping center.”

4. Expressing “Want”

In our daily lives, we often talk about the things we want or the activities we want to do. Following are some Turkish sentence patterns that will help you express what you want (and what you don’t want):

	Turkish	English
1	Bir fincan kahve istiyorum.	“I want a cup of coffee.”
2	Bir soru sormak istiyorum.	“I want to ask a question.”
3	Şu adrese gitmek istiyorum.	“I want to go to this address.”
4	Seninle konuşmak istemiyorum.	“I don’t want to talk to you.”
5	Deniz kenarında bir ev istiyorum.	“I want to have a house by the seaside.”
6	En yakın hastanenin nerede olduğunu öğrenmek istiyorum.	“I want to know where the closest hospital is.”

Let’s see how you can make variations of this Turkish sentence pattern:

1. In this example, bir fincan kahve (“a cup of coffee”) can be replaced with: bir dilim ekmek (“a slice of bread”); bir şişe şarap (“a bottle of wine”); bir bardak süt (“a glass of milk”).

2. – 5. The object is placed at the beginning, followed by the infinitive form of the verb that describes the action you want to do, and then the conjugated form of the verb istemek (“to want”).

5. Expressing Needs

Knowing how to express your needs in a foreign language is very important, especially in emergencies.

Here are five Turkish sentence patterns about needs that will be useful in your daily conversations:

	Turkish	English
1	Bir kaleme ihtiyacım var.	“I need a pen.”
2	Bir eczane bulmam lazım.	“I need to find a pharmacy.”
3	Pratik yapmam gerek.	“I need to practice.”
4	Burada olmana gerek yok.	“You don’t need to be here.”
5	Ayılmak için bir fincan kahveye ihtiyacım var.	“I need a cup of coffee to get sober.”

6. Expressing Obligations

There are many times when we need to tell people what we have to do. Here are some useful Turkish sentences for beginners:

	Turkish	English
1	İşe gitmeliyim.	“I must go to work.”
2	Tuvaleti kullanmak zorundayım.	“I have to use the restroom.”
3	Hemen bir doktor bulmalıyım.	“I must find a doctor immediately.”
4	Sigara içmemelisin.	“You mustn’t smoke.”
5	Toplantının sonuna dek kalmak zorunda değilsin.	“You don’t have to stay until the end of the meeting.”

7. Likes and Dislikes

There are so many things (or people) that we like or dislike in life. One way or the other, we frequently talk about these likes and dislikes. Now, let’s see which Turkish sentence patterns can help us express these two feelings.

	Turkish	English
1	Köpekleri çok severim.	“I like dogs a lot.”
2	Seni beğeniyorum.	“I like you.”
3	Türkçe öğrenmeyi seviyorum.	“I like learning Turkish.”
4	Futbol oynamayı sevmiyorum.	“I don’t like playing soccer.”
5	Annemin aldığı elbiseyi beğenmedim.	“I didn’t like the dress my mother bought.”

8. How to Request Something

Another set of Turkish phrases you need to know are those for making requests. These can take the form of sentences or questions.

1- In sentence form

The following example sentences will show you how to word your requests:

	Turkish	English
1	Lütfen otur.	“Please sit down.”
2	Lütfen beni dinle.	“Please listen to me.”
3	Soruma cevap ver lütfen.	“Answer my question, please.”
4	Lütfen toplantıya geç kalma.	“Please don’t be late to the meeting.”
5	Senden sessiz olmanı rica ediyorum.	“I’m requesting you to be quiet.”

2- As a question

I’m sure these example sentences will give you an idea of how to ask people what you want them to do (or not do).

	Turkish	English
1	Ayağa kalkabilir misin lütfen?	“Can you stand up, please?”
2	Işıkları söndürebilir misin lütfen?	“Can you turn off the lights, please?”
3	Ödevini yapabilir misin lütfen?	“Can you please do your homework?”
4	Pencereyi kapatabilir misin lütfen?	“Can you close the window please?”
5	Rica etsem kapıyı açabilir misin lütfen?	“May I request you to open the door, please?”

9. Asking for Permission

Here’s how to make Turkish sentences for asking permission:

	Turkish	English
1	İçeri girebilir miyim?	“May I come in?”
2	Bir bardak su alabilir miyim lütfen?	“May I get a glass of water, please?”
3	Telefon numaranı alabilir miyim?	“May I get your phone number?”
4	Toplantıya katılabilir miyim?	“May I join the meeting?”
5	Bir soru sorabilir miyim?	“May I ask a question?”

10. Question Patterns

Have you ever thought about how many questions you ask a day? I’m pretty sure you haven’t. I haven’t either, but I’m just guessing and the answer is probably “many.” There are “what,” “when,” “where,” “how,” “why,” and other types of questions. In this section, we’ll show you examples of how to form the most commonly used questions.

1- What?

Below are some example questions:

	Turkish	English
1	Bu nedir?	“What is this?”
2	Adın ne?	“What is your name?”
3	Ne oldu?	“What happened?”
4	Ne dedin?	“What did you say?”
5	Dün Türk restoranında sipariş ettiğin içecek neydi?	“What was the drink you ordered at the Turkish restaurant yesterday?”

2- What Time? / When?

Here are some patterns you can use: 

	Turkish	English
1	Saat kaç?	“What time is it?”
2	Saat kaçta geleceksin?	“At what time will you come?”
3	Toplantı ne zaman?	“When is the meeting?”
4	Uçak ne zaman kalkacak?	“When will the plane take off?”
5	Ne zaman gideceksin?	“When will you go?”

3- Where?

Below are some examples:

	Turkish	English
1	Nerelisin?	“Where are you from?”
2	Tuvalet nerede?	“Where is the restroom?”
3	Postane nerede?	“Where is the post office?”
4	Dün işten sonra nereye gittin?	“Where did you go after work yesterday?”
5	Nerede yemek yemek istersin?	“Where would you like to eat?”

4- Other Questions

Here are some more examples for other types of questions: 

	Turkish	English
1	Havaalanına nasıl gidebilirim?	“How can I go to the airport?”
2	Bu halı kaç para?	“How much is this carpet?”
3	Neden sordunuz?	“Why did you ask?”
4	Kaç tane bilet alacaksın?	“How many tickets will you buy?”
5	Otobüsten hangi durakta inmeliyim?	“At which stop should I get off of the bus?”

11. More Practice with TurkishClass101.com

How does it feel to know at least ten Turkish sentence patterns? Do you think you’ll be able to express your needs, likes, and dislikes better? Will you be able to ask the most pressing questions? I’m sure you’ll do better than you’ve done in the past!

How about doing even better than today? All you need to do is visit TurkishClass101.com and utilize all of our free resources, including our dictionary!

You can also download the app for free and use it wherever you are.

Don’t forget that there’s also MyTeacher, the premium TurkishClass101 service that you can use to practice the Turkish sentence structure and sentence patterns with a private teacher.

Please don’t neglect to share your experience with us about the services offered at TurkishClass101.com!

Happy learning!

We talk and write to communicate. But does communication only consist of exchanging information? Do the details, precision, and clarity of the information matter? How about sharing ideas or conveying feelings through conversations?

Can a simple sentence with only a subject and a verb—and maybe even an adjective—always lead to clear communication?

Not necessarily! Some of those details, clarity, and feelings are hidden in what we call “adverbs.”

Today we’ll talk about Turkish adverbs; their functionality, types, and placement in sentences. By the time you finish reading this article, you’ll have learned around 100 basic adverbs in Turkish.

Table of Contents

1. General Info on Adverbs
2. Adverbs Based on Their Functions and Meanings
3. Adverbs Based on Their Structures
4. Where Do Adverbs Go in a Sentence?
5. Get More Comfortable with Adverbs via TurkishClass101

1. General Info on Adverbs

Let’s start with the definition of an adverb. An adverb is a word that describes a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a phrase, or a clause. However, it doesn’t modify a noun.

An adverb also gives information about the manner, place, time, frequency, or certainty of the action represented by the verb. To better explain this, I would like to rephrase my question from earlier: 

Are nouns, verbs, and adjectives sufficient to form sentences that get all of the feelings, details, and messages across? 

For example, if someone said “I walked,” wouldn’t you want to ask where, when, how, or why they walked? Well, yes, for better communication, we need the answers to these kinds of questions. This is what adverbs do.

Now, let’s see what types of adverbs there are in Turkish. Adverbs in Turkish are classified as follows:

• Adverbs based on their functions and meanings
• Adverbs based on their structures

Now, let’s dive a little deeper into this before moving on to our Turkish adverbs list.

2. Adverbs Based on Their Functions and Meanings

The Turkish adverbs that fall under this category are:

• Turkish adverbs of manner
• Turkish adverbs of time
• Turkish adverbs of place/direction
• Turkish adverbs of quantity
• Turkish adverbs of frequency
• Turkish adverbs of interrogation
• Adverbs that indicate manner/situation

Turkish adverbs of manner show how an action is executed. This category has seven sub-categories:

1. Qualitative Adverbs

In Turkish, some adverbs can be formed from adjectives by adding a suffix. Below is a table that shows the rules for determining the correct suffixes:

		Last syllable of the adjective has “a, ı, o, u “		Last syllable of the adjective has “e, i, ö, ü”
Adjective	Adverb	If the adjective ends with “f, s, t, k, ç, ş, h, p”	If the adjective ends with other letters	If the adjective ends with “f, s, t, k, ç, ş, h, p”	If the adjective ends with other letters
Yavaş “Slow”	Yavaşça “Slowly”	-ça
Saygısız “Disrespectful”	Saygısızca “Disrespectfully”		-ca
Nazik “Kind”	Nazikçe “Kindly”			-çe
Dikkatli “Careful”	Dikkatlice “Carefully”				-ce

Sometimes the adjective and the adverb can be the same word. For example:

•  Hızlı (“Fast” / “Rapidly” / “Speedily”)

Now, it’s time to learn more qualitative adverbs in Turkish:

No.	Adverbs in Turkish and English	Their Usage
1	İyi “Well”	Sınava iyi hazırlandım. “I was well-prepared for the exam.”
2	Doğru “Correctly”	Numarayı doğru yazın lütfen. “Please write the number correctly.”
3	Kolayca “Easily”	Bu problemi kolayca çözdüm. “I solved this problem easily.”
4	Sessizce “Quietly”	Bana sessizce yaklaştı. “He/she/it approached me quietly.”
5	Hafifçe “Lightly”	Omuzuma hafifçe dokundu. “He/she touched my shoulder lightly.”
6	Gizlice “Secretly”	Hediyeyi gizlice paketledim. “I wrapped the present secretly.”
7	Basitçe “Simply”	Konuyu basitçe özetledim. “I summarized the issue simply.”
8	Açıkça “Frankly” / “Openly” / “Clearly”	Fikrimi açıkça söyledim. “I told my opinion frankly.”
9	Güzelce “Properly”	Ne gördüğünü bana güzelce anlat. “Tell me properly what you saw.”
10	Kibarca “Politely”	Onu kibarca uyardım. “I warned him/her politely.”
11	Sakince “Calmly”	Teklifini sakince reddettim. “I refused his/her proposal calmly.”
12	Rahatça “Comfortably”	Yeni odamda rahatça uyudum. “I slept comfortably in my new room.”

2. Adverbs of Certainty

Here’s a Turkish adverbs list of certainty:

No.	Adverbs in Turkish and English	Their Usage
13	Kesinlikle “Definitely” / “Certainly”	Partiye kesinlikle gelmeyeceğim. “I definitely won’t come to the party.”
14	Hiç “Never”	Japonya’yı hiç görmedim. “I have never seen Japan.”
15	Mutlaka “Absolutely”	O oyunu mutlaka görmelisin. “You must absolutely see that play.”
16	Elbette “For sure”	Elbette geleceğim. “I will come for sure.”
17	Ne olursa olsun “Regardless”	Hava nasıl olursa olsun gideceğim. “I will go regardless of the weather.”
18	Kuşkusuz “Doubtlessly”	Kuşkusuz suçlusun. “You are doubtlessly guilty.”

3. Adverbs of Repetition

Here are some examples of repetitive adverbs in Turkish:

No.	Adverbs in Turkish and English	Their Usage
19	Yine “Again” / “Over” / “Once again”	Yine kaybettim. “I lost again.”
20	Tekrar “Again” / “Repetition”	Adresini tekrar yazmalıyım. “I have to write your address again.”
21	Bir daha “Once more” / “Once again”	Sana bir daha kanmayacağım. “I will not fall for you once again.”
22	İkide bir “Again and again” / “Constantly”	İkide bir düşüyorsun. “You are constantly falling.”
23	Zaman zaman “From time to time” / “Now and then”	Onu zaman zaman arıyorum. “I call him/her from time to time.”

4. Adverbs of Probability

The table below shows examples of Turkish adverbs of probability.

No.	Adverbs in Turkish and English	Their Usage
24	Belki “Maybe”	Belki dönerim. “Maybe I will return.”
25	Muhtemelen “Probably”	Muhtemelen uyuyordur. “He/she/it is probably sleeping.”
26	Sanıyorum ki “I guess”	Sanıyorum ki çalışıyordur. “I guess he/she is working.”

5. Adverbs of Distribution

No.	Adverbs in Turkish and English	Their Usage
27	Teker teker “One by one” / “Individually”	Teker teker saymalısın. “You must count one by one.”
28	Beşer beşer “By fives”	Kutuları beşer beşer dizdim. “I stacked the boxes five by five.”

6. Adverbs of Restriction

No.	Adverbs in Turkish and English	Their Usage
29	Ancak “Merely” / “Solely” / “Only”	Dün ancak bir saat uyuyabildim. “Yesterday, I could only sleep for one hour.”
30	Artık “No longer” / “Anymore”	O artık gelmez. “He/she/it won’t come anymore.”

7. Adverbs of Proximity / Approximation

No.	Adverbs in Turkish and English	Their Usage
31	Yaklaşık “Approximately”	Dün yaklaşık bir saat çalıştım. “Yesterday, I worked approximately one hour.”
32	Hemen hemen “Almost”	İşim hemen hemen iki saat önce bitti. “I was done almost two hours ago.”
33	Aşağı yukarı “More or less” / “Approximately”	Aşağı yukarı beş kilometre yürüdüm. “I walked five kilometers, more or less.”
34	Neredeyse “Almost”	Neredeyse düşüyordum. “I almost fell.”
35	Şöyle böyle “So-so”	Sınav şöyle böyle geçti. “The exam went so-so.”

8. Adverbs that indicate the time of an action

Turkish time adverbs answer the “when” question. Now, are you ready for a list of some Turkish adverbs of time and their usage in sentences?

No.	Adverbs in Turkish and English	Their Usage
36	Dün “Yesterday”	Dün okula gitmedim. “I did not go to school yesterday.”
37	Dün gece “Last night”	Dün gece hiç uyuyamadım. “I could not sleep at all last night.”
38	Bugün “Today”	Bugün alışverişe gideceğim. “I will go shopping today.”
39	Bu sabah “This morning”	Bu sabah çok uykum var. “I’m very sleepy this morning.”
40	Bu gece “Tonight”	Bu gece yemek pişirmeyeceğim. “I will not cook tonight.”
41	Yarın “Tomorrow”	Yarın hastaneye gideceğim. “I will go to the hospital tomorrow.”
42	Gelecek hafta “Next week”	Gelecek hafta kızım mezun oluyor. “My daughter is graduating next week.”
43	Şimdi “Now”	Şimdi sessiz olmalısın. “You have to be quiet now.”
44	Hemen şimdi “Right now”	Hemen şimdi gitmeliyim. “I have to go right now.”
45	Hemen “Immediately”	Hemen gelmelisin. “You have to come immediately.”
46	Önce “Before”	Gitmeden önce beni aramalısın. “You must call me before you go.”
47	Sonra “Later”	İki gün sonra orada olacağım. “I will be there two days later.”
48	Yakın zamanda “Recently”	Ben o filmi yakın zamanda seyrettim. “I watched that movie recently.”
49	Son zamanlarda “Lately”	Son zamanlarda çok yorgunum. “I’m very tired lately.”
50	Yakında “Soon”	Yakında bebeğim olacak. “I will have a baby soon.”
51	Hala “Still”	Seni hala seviyorum. “I still love you.”
52	Henüz “Yet”	Henüz bir karar vermedim. “I have not made a decision yet.”
53	Önce “Ago”	İki yıl önce evlendim. “I got married two years ago.”

9. Adverbs that show place / direction

Turkish adverbs of place answer the “where” question. Here are some examples:

No.	Adverbs in Turkish and English	Their Usage
54	Aşağı “Down”	Merdivenlerden aşağı iniyor. “He/she/it is going down the stairs.”
55	Yukarı “Up”	Yukarı baktı ve gülümsedi. “He/she looked up and smiled.”
56	İçeri “Inside”	İçeri girdi ve ağlamaya başladı. “He/she came inside and started crying.”
57	Dışarı “Outside”	Hadi dışarı çıkalım. “Let’s go outside.”
58	İleri “Forward”	Lütfen ileri gitme. “Please don’t go forward.”
59	Geri “Back”	Lütfen geri gel. “Please come back.”
60	Beri “Near” / “This way”	Beri gel, konuşalım. “Come near me, so we can talk.”

I need your full ATTENTION here, please! There are two things you need to be very careful about in terms of Turkish adverbs of place and direction:

1. Place/direction adverbs do not take inflectional suffixes. If they do, they’re not called adverbs anymore. They become nouns. Now, let’s go over an example:

• İçeri girdim. (“I got inside.”)

The word içeri is an adverb that answers the “where” question.

• İçeriye girdim. (“I got inside.”)

The word içeri gets an inflectional suffix and becomes a noun. Although the meaning stays the same, the function of the word changes.

2. Adverbs have to determine the direction/place of the action performed. They have to relate to the verb. If the adverb is related to a noun, then it’s used as an adjective. Here’s an example:

• Aşağı indim. (“I went down.”)

The word aşağı is a Turkish adverb that answers the “where” question.

•  Aşağı kat satıldı. (“The flat downstairs has been sold.”)

The word aşağı is related to a noun here, so it functions as an adjective, not an adverb.

10. Adverbs that show quantity / measurement

This type of adverb affects the meaning of verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs in terms of quantity and measurement. These words represent numbers, equality, comparison, superiority, and degree. They answer the “how much” and “to what extent” questions.

No.	Adverbs in Turkish and English	Their Usage
61	Az “Little” / “Few / “A bit”	Oraya gelmemize az kaldı. “We are about to arrive there.”
62	Biraz “Some” / “A little”	Biraz bekler misin lütfen? “Can you wait a little, please?”
63	Çok “Much” / “Many” / “Very” / “Too much”	Çok hızlı koştuk. “We ran very fast.”
64	Fazla “Too” / “Too much” / “Too many” / “Over”	Bu gece fazla yedim. “I ate too much tonight.”
65	Pek “Quite” / “So” / “Very much”	Bu tablo pek güzel. “This painting is very nice.”
66	Epey “A great number of” / “A great deal of”	Eviniz epey büyük. “Your house is quite big.”
67	Epeyce “Quite a bit” / “Pretty”	Epeyce hızlısın. “You are pretty fast.”
68	Oldukça “Rather” / “Quite / “A good bit”	O oldukça yakışıklı. “He is quite handsome.”
69	Daha çok “More”	Daha çok çalışmalısın. “You have to study more.”
70	En çok “Most”	En çok çalışan benim. “I’m the one who works the most.”
71	Daha “More”	Daha pahalı bir araba istemiyorum. “I don’t want a more expensive car.”
72	Kadar “As much as” / “As far as” / “As ___ as”	Senin kadar sabırlı değilim. “I’m not as patient as you are.”
73	Bu kadar “This much” / “That much” / “So much”	Bu kadar bekleyemem. “I can’t wait that much.”

I would like to give you another WARNING here.

1. Please do not mix certain quantity adverbs with numeral adjectives. The following example will help you understand this better:

• Fazla stres insanı fazla üzer. (“Too much stress saddens people too much!”)

The very first fazla is an adjective because it’s related to the noun “stress.” The second one is an adverb because it’s related to the verb.

11. Adverbs that indicate frequency

The Turkish adverbs of frequency answer the “how frequently” question. Some linguists cover this category under the title “Adverbs that indicate the time of action.”

Here’s a list of some Turkish adverbs of frequency.

No.	Adverbs in Turkish and English	Their Usage
74	Bazen “Sometimes”	Seni bazen kıskanıyorum. “I sometimes envy you.”
75	Asla “Never”	Geç kalsam bile, asla koşmam. “Even if I’m late, I never run.”
76	Daima “Always”	Seni daima seveceğim. “I will always love you.”
77	Sık sık “Frequently”	Ben oraya sık sık gidiyorum. “I go there frequently.”
78	Nadiren “Rarely”	Seni artık nadiren görebiliyorum. “I can rarely see you.”
79	Her zaman “All the time”	Her zaman gülümsüyorsun. “You are smiling all the time.”
80	Genellikle “Usually”	İşte genellikle çok meşgulüm. “I’m usually busy at work.”
81	Saatlik “Hourly”	Saatlik çalışmak istiyorum. “I want to work hourly.”
82	Günlük “Daily	Ödevleri günlük yapıyorum. “I’m doing homework daily.”
83	Haftalık “Weekly”	Siparişleri haftalık alıyorum. “I take orders weekly.”
84	Aylık “Monthly”	Raporları aylık hazırlıyorum. “I prepare the reports monthly.”
85	Yıllık “Annually”	Planları yıllık yapıyoruz. “We make the plans annually.”
86	Ayda bir “Once a month”	Toplantıya ayda bir katılıyorum. “I attend the meeting once a month.”

12. Interrogative adverbs

Interrogative adverbs are used to describe what someone wants to know about the action that was performed. Here are some interrogative adverbs in Turkish:

No.	Adverbs in Turkish and English	Their Usage
87	Ne “What”	Benden ne istiyorsun? “What do you want from me?”
88	Ne zaman “When”	Ne zaman gideceksin? “When will you go?”
89	Ne kadar “How much” / “How long”	Daha ne kadar bekleyeceğim? “How long will I wait?”
90	Nasıl “How”	Sen nasıl konuşabilirsin böyle? “How can you talk like this?”
91	Niçin “Why”	Niçin gelmedin? “Why didn’t you come?”

3. Adverbs Based on Their Structures

1. Simple Adverbs (No. 92-93)

These are adverbs that do not take suffixes. They’re root words. Here are two examples:

• Yarın (“Tomorrow”)
• Gece (“Night”)

2. Derived Adverbs (No. 94-96)

These are adverbs that take derivational suffixes.

• Sınıfça (“As a class”)
• Aylarca (“For months”)
• Kışın (“In the winter”)

3. Compound Adverbs (No. 97-99)

A compound adverb is a structure in which one adverb is combined with either another adverb, or sometimes with another part of speech.

• Bugün (Bu + gün) – “Today”
• Biraz (Bir + az) – “Some” / “Little bit”
• Birdenbire (Birden + bire) – “Suddenly”

4. Adverbial Phrases and Reduplicative Adverbs (No. 100-105)

These phrases are formed by combining two or more words, which can be reduplicative words, verb-adverb combinations, and so on.

Here are some examples:

• Hemen hemen (“Almost”)
• Gece gündüz (“Night and day”)
• Er geç (“Sooner or later”)
• Kırk yılda bir (“Once in a blue moon”)
• Üç aşağı beş yukarı (“Approximately” / “More or less”)
• Doğru dürüst (“Properly”)

4. Where Do Adverbs Go in a Sentence?

Turkish adverbs usually come immediately before verbs. However, depending on what you want to emphasize, they might come before adjectives or other adverbs as well. As I mentioned earlier, they never come before nouns, because if they do, they become adjectives.

Here’s the usage of Turkish adverbs with examples:

• Hızlı koşuyor. – “He’s running fast.”

Hızlı (“fast”) is the adverb here, and it comes before the verb.

• Çok hızlı koşuyor. – “He’s running very fast.”

Çok (“very”) is the adverb here, and it comes before the other adverb, hızlı (“fast”).

•  Çok güzel bir evleri var. – “They have a very beautiful house.”

Çok (“very”) is the adverb here, and it comes before the adjective, güzel (“beautiful”).

5. Get More Comfortable with Adverbs via TurkishClass101

Now you know over 100 Turkish adverbs! Can you imagine how rich your sentences will be when you start using them?

How comfortable do you feel using all those adverbs in Turkish now? Do you still have some questions or doubts? Is there an adverb in Turkish we didn’t cover?

Then please visit TurkishClass101, which has many resources you can utilize to improve your skills and expand your knowledge. You can also reach out to us in the comments and we’ll do our best to help!

In the meantime, take advantage of our free resources, or upgrade to Premium PLUS and begin learning Turkish with our MyTeacher program.

Happy Turkish learning!

You asked, so we provided—easy-to-follow instructions on how to set up your electronic devices to write in Turkish! We’ll also give you a few excellent tips on how to use this keyboard, as well as some online and app alternatives if you prefer not to set up a Turkish keyboard.

Table of Contents

1. Why it’s Important to Learn to Type in Turkish
2. Setting up Your Computer and Mobile Devices for Turkish
3. How to Activate an Onscreen Keyboard on Your Computer
4. How to Change the Language Settings to Turkish on Your Computer
5. Activating the Turkish Keyboard on Your Mobile Phone and Tablet
6. Turkish Keyboard Typing Tips
7. How to Practice Typing Turkish

1. Why it’s Important to Learn to Type in Turkish

Learning a new language is made so much easier when you’re able to read and write/type it. This way, you will:

• Get the most out of any dictionary and Turkish language apps on your devices
• Expand your ability to find Turkish websites and use the various search engines
• Be able to communicate much better online with your Turkish teachers and friends, and look super cool in the process! 

2. Setting up Your Computer and Mobile Devices for Turkish

It takes only a few steps to set up any of your devices to read and type in Turkish. It’s super-easy on your mobile phone and tablet, and a simple process on your computer.

On your computer, you’ll first activate the onscreen keyboard to work with. You’ll only be using your mouse or touchpad/pointer for this keyboard. Then, you’ll need to change the language setting to Turkish, so all text will appear in Turkish. You could also opt to use online keyboards instead. Read on for the links!

On your mobile devices, it’s even easier—you only have to change the keyboard. We also provide a few alternatives in the form of online keyboards and downloadable apps.

3. How to Activate an Onscreen Keyboard on Your Computer

1- Mac

1. Go to System Preferences > Keyboard.

2. Check the option “Show Keyboard & Character Viewers in Menu Bar.”

3. You’ll see a new icon on the right side of the main bar; click on it and select “Show Keyboard Viewer.”

2- Windows

1. Go to Start > Settings > Easy Access > Keyboard.

2. Turn on the option for “Onscreen Keyboard.”

3- Online Keyboards

If you don’t want to activate your computer’s onscreen keyboard, you also have the option to use online keyboards. Here are some good options:

• Typeit
• LEXILOGOS
• Branah

4- Add-ons of Extensions for Browsers

Instead of an online keyboard, you could also choose to download a Google extension to your browser for a language input tool. The Google Input Tools extension allows users to use input tools in Chrome web pages, for example.

4. How to Change the Language Settings to Turkish on Your Computer

Now that you’re all set to work with an onscreen keyboard on your computer, it’s time to download the Turkish language pack for your operating system of choice:

• Windows 8 (and higher)
• Windows 7
• Mac (OS X and higher)

1- Windows 8 (and higher)

1. Go to “Settings” > “Change PC Settings” > “Time & Language” > “Region & Language.”
2. Click on “Add a Language” and select “Turkish.” This will add it to your list of languages. It will appear as Turkish with the note “language pack available.”
3. Click on “Turkish” > “Options” > “Download.” It’ll take a few minutes to download and install the language pack.
4. As a keyboard layout, you’ll only need the one marked as “Turkish Q Keyboard.” You can ignore other keyboard layouts.

2- Windows 7

1. Go to “Start” > “Control Panel” > “Clock, Language, and Region.”
2. On the “Region and Language” option, click on “Change Keyboards or Other Input Methods.”
3. On the “Keyboards and Languages” tab, click on “Change Keyboards” > “Add” > “Turkish”.
4. Expand the option of “Turkish” and then expand the option “Keyboard.” Select the keyboard layout marked as “Turkish Q Keyboard.” You can ignore other keyboard layouts. Click “OK” and then “Apply.”

3- Mac (OS X and higher)

If you can’t see the language listed, please make sure to select the right option from System Preferences > Language and Region

1. From the Apple Menu (top left corner of the screen) go to System Preferences > Keyboard.

2. Click the Input Sources tab and a list of available keyboards and input methods will appear.

3. Click on the plus button, select “Turkish,” and add the “Turkish – QWERTY PC” keyboard.

5. Activating the Turkish Keyboard on Your Mobile Phone and Tablet

Texting and searching in Turkish will greatly help you master the language! Adding a Turkish keyboard on your mobile phone and/or tablet is super-easy.

You could also opt to download an app instead of adding a keyboard. Read on for our suggestions.

Below are the instructions for both iOS and Android mobile phones and tablets.

1- iOS

1. Go to Settings > General > Keyboard.

2. Tap “Keyboards” and then “Add New Keyboard.”

3. Select “Turkish” from the list.

4. When typing, you can switch between languages by tapping and holding on the icon to reveal the keyboard language menu.

2- Android

1. Go to Settings > General Management > Language and Input > On-screen Keyboard (or “Virtual Keyboard” on some devices) > Samsung Keyboard.

2. Tap “Language and Types” or “ + Select Input Languages” depending on the device and then “MANAGE INPUT LANGUAGES” if available.

3. Select “Turkish” from the list.

4. When typing, you can switch between languages by swiping the space bar.

3- Applications for Mobile Phones

If you don’t want to add a keyboard on your mobile phone or tablet, this is a good app to consider:

• Turkish for GO Keyboard

6. Turkish Keyboard Typing Tips

Typing in Turkish can be very challenging at first! Therefore, we added here a few useful tips to make it easier to use your Turkish keyboard.

1- Computer

• Remember that the capital form of the letter “i” is “İ” and the lower case form of “I” is “ı.”
• The letters with dots and lines over them aren’t accentised letters, but different letters entirely. They all have seperate keys on the keyboard.
• There are two widely used Turkish keyboard layouts that are identified by the letter on the upper left corner, which are Q and F keyboards. F keyboards are mosty in decline but they are still listed in settings.
• “@” can be typed by pressing “AltGR” and “Q” together.

2- Mobile Phones

• Most of the letters that have dots or lines on them can be typed by pressing the letter that resembles them until the other options appear, and then choosing from the alternatives. (E.g. Keeping your finger on “g” to type “ğ” or “s” to type “ş.”)
• Some native speakers ignore the Turkish letters while typing from their phones. This can lead to misunderstandings.

7. How to Practice Typing Turkish

As you probably know by now, learning Turkish is all about practice, practice, and more practice! Strengthen your Turkish typing skills by writing comments on any of our lesson pages, and our teacher will answer. If you’re a TurkishClass101 Premium PLUS member, you can directly text our teacher via the My Teacher app—use your Turkish keyboard to do this!

Before we begin, why should you learn Turkish conjugation? 

Well, conjugation is what allows you to effectively convey thoughts and ideas in a way that makes sense to others. By learning the proper conjugation of Turkish verbs early on in your studies, you’re giving yourself a head start to reaching fluency.

In this article, we’ll cover the basics of conjugation in Turkish, starting with how conjugation works in general. Let’s get started.

Table of Contents

1. General Info on Conjugation
2. Conjugation in Turkish
3. Verb Modification
4. Ready for a Challenge?
5. Conclusion

1. General Info on Conjugation

Conjugation is how you change or modify a verb’s basic form to convey a different meaning, or to express the following:

• Person / Subject
• Gender (male or female)
• Tense
• Mood
• Aspect
• Voice
• Number (singular or plural)
• Politeness level (formal or informal)

Every language is different, and of course, these are general parameters, all of which may not apply to all languages.

Now that you know the very basics, we’ll talk about Turkish verb conjugation and provide you with some Turkish verb conjugation charts along the way.

2. Conjugation in Turkish

Verbs are the main building blocks of a sentence. Therefore, when learning Turkish, knowing how to conjugate them is critical. It takes quite a bit of time, and it’s not very simple. 

Did I intimidate you? No, no, that’s not what I wanted to do. 

I just want to advise you that you should pay close attention to the Turkish conjugation rules. You may also want to make a Turkish verb conjugation chart for yourself, or create a Turkish verbs conjugation PDF file for future reference.

Now, let’s see which of the factors I mentioned above are involved in Turkish verb conjugation.

I. Person / Subject

In Turkish, different suffixes are added to a verb based on the person/subject it alludes to. Since the verb of the sentence already contains a personal pronoun through the suffix it takes, personal pronouns aren’t usually used in sentences. Vowels in the suffixes change based on the vowel harmony.

I’ll provide rules and examples for this below when talking about the tenses.

II. Number of Subjects

Whether the subject is singular or plural impacts the suffix the verb will get. I’ll provide examples for this later on in this article.

III. Politeness Level

In Turkish, we use the plural “you” both as it’s used in English, and also as a polite, formal way of naming or referring to someone. The Turkish verb conjugation rules for the plural “you” also apply to the polite “you.” 

IV. Tense

Tenses are the most confusing of all. I’ll make a Turkish verb conjugation chart for each tense, including the person/subject suffixes. I highly recommend that you prepare your own reference file using those charts, so that you can find all of the Turkish verb conjugation information in one place.

A. The Verb “To Be”

The thing about the verb “to be” in Turkish is that there isn’t a word for it like there is in English (“am,” “is,” “are”). Instead, the suffixes imply the meaning.

Word ending with a consonant
Person + “to be”	Last syllable of the word has “a” or “ı”	Last syllable of the word has “e” or “i”	Last syllable of the word has “o” or “u”	Last syllable of the word has “ö” or “ü”	Word ending with a vowel
“I am” (Ben)	-ım	-ım	-um	-um	Buffer y + (rules for the word ending with a consonant)
“You are”  (Sen)	-sın	-sın	-sun	-sun	Same rules in this line
“He / she / it is” (O)	-dır / tır	-dır / tır	-dur / tur	-dur / tur	Same rules in this line
“We are” (Biz)	-ız	-ız	-uz	-uz	Buffer y + (rules for the word ending with a consonant)
“You are” (Siz)	-sınız	-sınız	-sunuz	-sunuz	Same rules in this line
“They are” (Onlar)	-dırlar / tırlar or  -lar	-dirler / tirler or  -ler	-durlar /  turlar or  -lar	-dürler / türler or  -ler	Same rules in this line

Please note that the third person singular pronoun doesn’t have to take the suffix; you can leave it blank. The third person plural pronoun doesn’t have to take the whole suffix, either; it can take only the plural suffixes -ler and -lar.

Here are some examples:

Person + “to be”	Kızgın – “Angry”	Öğretmen – “Teacher”	Tok – “Full”	Üzgün – “Sad”	Zeki – “Smart”
“I am” (Ben)	Kızgınım	Öğretmenim	Tokum	Üzgünüm	Zekiyim
“You are” (Sen)	Kızgınsın	Öğretmensin	Toksun	Üzgünsün	Zekisin
“He / she / it is” (O)	Kızgın(dır)	Öğretmen(dir)	Tok(tur)	Üzgün(dür)	Zeki(dir)
“We are” (Biz)	Kızgınız	Öğretmeniz	Tokuz	Üzgünüz	Zekiyiz
“You are” (Siz)	Kızgınsınız	Öğretmensiniz	Toksunuz	Üzgünsünüz	Zekisiniz
“They are” (Onlar)	Kızgın(dır)lar	Öğretmen(dir)ler	Tok(tur)lar	Üzgün(dür)ler	Zeki(dir)ler

B. Modal Verbs

In Turkish, there aren’t separate words for the modal verbs. To form modal verbs, certain suffixes are added to the verbs. For example:

• Can

In Turkish, we express “can” using the suffix -abil or -ebil. We add the appropriate one to the verb root based on its last vowel. -abil and -ebil can be used with any tense, but are usually used with the present simple tense. If the verb ends with a vowel, then the buffer y is added before the -abil or -ebil suffix.

	Verb ending with a consonant Last vowel of the verb root		Verb ending with a vowel      Last vowel of the verb root
Person	a/ı/o/u	e/i/ö/ü	a/ı/o/u	e/i/ö/ü
“” (Ben)	-abilirim	-ebilirim	-yabilirim	-yebilirim
“You” (Sen)	-abilirsin	-ebilirsin	-yabilirsin	-yebilirsin
“He / she / it” (O)	-abilir	-ebilir	-yabilir	-yebilir
“We” (Biz)	-abiliriz	-ebiliriz	-yabiliriz	-yebiliriz
“You” (Siz)	-abilirsiniz	-ebilirsiniz	-yabilirsiniz	-yebilirsiniz
“They” (Onlar)	-abilirler	-ebilirler	-yabilirler	-yebilirler

Examples:

Ben atabilirim. (“I can throw.”)	Ben çekebilirim. (“I can pull.”)	Ben arayabilirim. (“I can call.”)	Ben söyleyebilirim. (“I can tell.”)
Sen atabilirsin. (“You can throw.”)	Sen çekebilirsin. (“You can pull.”)	Sen arayabilirsin. (“You can call.”)	Sen söyleyebilirsin. (“You can tell.”)
O atabilir. (“He / she / it can throw.”)	O çekebilir. (“He / she / it can pull.”)	O arayabilir. (“He / she / it can call.”)	O söyleyebilir. (“He / she / it can tell.”)
Biz atabiliriz. (“We can throw.”)	Biz çekebiliriz. (“We can pull.”)	Biz arayabiliriz. (“We can call.”)	Biz söyleyebiliriz. (“We can tell.”)
Siz atabilirsiniz. (“You can throw.”)	Siz çekebilirsiniz. (“You can pull.”)	Siz arayabilirsiniz. (“You can call.”)	Siz söyleyebilirsiniz. (“You can tell.”)
Onlar atabilirler. (“They can throw.”)	Onlar çekebilirler. (“They can pull.”)	Onlar arayabilirler. (“They can call.”)	Onlar söyleyebilirler. (“They can tell.”)

• Must

In Turkish, we express “must” using the suffixes -malı or -meli, which are added to the verb root.

	Last vowel of the verb root
Person	a/ı/o/u	e/i/ö/ü
“I” (Ben)	-malıyım	-meliyim
“You” (Sen)	-malısın	-melisin
“He / she / it” (O)	-malı	-meli
“We” (Biz)	-malıyız	-meliyiz
“You” (Siz)	-malısınız	-melisiniz
“They” (Onlar)	-malılar	-meliler

Here are some examples:

Ben yapmalıyım. (“I must do.”)	Ben gelmeliyim. (“I must come.”)
Sen yapmalısın. (“You must do.”)	Sen gelmelisin. (“You must come.”)
O yapmalı. (“He / she / it must do.”)	O gelmeli. (“He / she / it must come.”)
Biz yapmalıyız. (“We must do.”)	Biz gelmeliyiz. (“We must come.”)
Siz yapmalısınız. (“You must do.”)	Siz gelmelisiniz. (“You must come.”)
Onlar yapmalılar. (“They must do.”)	Onlar gelmeliler. (“They must come.”)

C. Simple Present Tense

The simple present tense is used for the actions that we do all the time. Here are the rules for Turkish present tense conjugations:

1. The following suffixes are added to the verb root for verbs ending with a vowel:

	Last vowel of the verb root
	a/ı	e/i	o/u	ö/ü
“I” (Ben)	-rım	-rım	-rum	-rum
“You” (Sen)	-rsın	-rsın	-rsun	-rsun
“He / she / it” (O)	-r	-r	-r	-r
“We” (Biz)	-rız	-rız	-ruz	-ruz
“You” (Siz)	-rsınız	-rsınız	-rsunuz	-rsunuz
“They” (Onlar)	-rlar	-rler	-rlar	-rler

Here are some examples:

Ben boyarım. (“I paint.”)	Ben söylerim. (“I tell.”)	Ben okurum. (“I read.”)	Ben yürürüm. (“I walk.”)
Sen boyarsın. (“You paint.”)	Sen söylersin. (“You tell.”)	Sen okursun. (“You read.”)	Sen yürürsün. (“You walk.”)
O boyar. (“He / she / it paints.”)	O söyler. (“He / she / it tells.”)	O okur. (“He / she / it reads.”)	O yürür. (“He / she / it walks.”)
Biz boyarız. (“We paint.”)	Biz söyleriz. (“We tell.”)	Biz okuruz. (“We read.”)	Biz yürürüz. (“We walk.”)
Siz boyarsınız. (“You paint.”)	Siz söylersiniz. (“You tell.”)	Siz okursunuz. (“You read.”)	Siz yürürsünüz. (“You walk.”)
Onlar boyarlar. (“They paint.”)	Onlar söylerler. (“They tell.”)	Onlar okurlar. (“They read.”)	Onlar yürürler. (“They walk.”)

2. The following suffixes are added to the verb root for verbs that have one syllable and end with a consonant:

	Last vowel of the verb root
Person	a/ı/o/u	e/i/ö/ü
“I” (Ben)	-arım	-erim
“You” (Sen)	-arsın	-ersin
“He / she / it” (O)	-ar	-er
“We” (Biz)	-arız	-eriz
“You” (Siz)	-arsınız	-ersiniz
“They” (Onlar)	-arlar	-erler

Please note that there are some exceptions to this rule: 

• Almak – “To take”
• Bilmek – “To know”
• Bulmak – “To find”
• Durmak – “To stop”
• Gelmek – “To come”
• Görmek – “To see”
• Kalmak – “To stay”
• Olmak (helping verb) – “To be”
• Ölmek – “To die”
• Sanmak – “To suppose”
• Vermek – “To give”
• Varmak – “To arrive”

Here are some examples for this rule:

Ben açarım. (“I open.”)	Ben severim. (“I love.”)
Sen açarsın. (“You open.”)	Sen seversin. (“You love.”)
O açar. (“He / she / it opens.”)	O sever. (“He / she / it loves.”)
Biz açarız. (“We open.”)	Biz severiz. (“We love.”)
Siz açarsınız. (“You open.”)	Siz seversiniz. (“You love.”)
Onlar açarlar. (“They open.”)	Onlar severler. (“They love.”)

3. The following suffixes are added to the verb root for verbs that have more than one syllable and end with a consonant:

	Last vowel of the verb root
Person	a/ı	e/i	o/u	ö/ü
“I” (Ben)	-ırım	-ırım	-urum	-urum
“You” (Sen)	-ırsın	-ırsın	-ursun	-ursun
“He / she / it” (O)	-ır	-ır	-ur	-ur
“We” (Biz)	-ırız	-ırız	-uruz	-uruz
“You” (Siz)	-ırsınız	-ırsınız	-ursunuz	-ursunuz
“They” (Onlar)	-ırlar	-irler	-urlar	-ürler

Below are some examples for this rule:

Ben çalışırım. (“I work.”)	Ben öğretirim. (“I teach.”)	Ben unuturum. (“I forget.”)	Ben götürürüm. (“I take.”)
Sen çalışırsın. (“You work.”)	Sen öğretirsin. (“You teach.”)	Sen unutursun. (“You forget.”)	Sen götürürsün. (“You take.”)
O çalışır. (“He / she / it works.”)	O öğretir. (“He / she / it teaches.”)	O unutur. (“He / she / it forgets.”)	O götürür. (“He / she / it takes.”)
Biz çalışırız. (“We work.”)	Biz öğretiriz. (“We teach.”)	Biz unuturuz. (“We forget.”)	Biz götürürüz. (“We take.”)
Siz çalışırsınız. (“You work.”)	Siz öğretirsiniz. (“You teach.”)	Siz öğretirsiniz. (“You teach.”)	Siz götürürsünüz. (“You take.”)
Onlar çalışırlar. (“They work.”)	Onlar öğretirler. (“They teach.”)	Onlar unuturlar. (“They forget.”)	Onlar götürürler. (“They take.”)

Please also note that sometimes helping words such as etmek and olmak are combined together with other words like kaybolmak and seyretmek. These verbs don’t follow this rule; instead, the rule that applies to the helping verbs etmek and olmak is used.

D. Present Continuous Tense

If the verb root ends in a vowel, the vowel at the end is dropped and the following suffixes are added. The suffixes shown below also are used for verbs ending with a consonant:

Person	a/ı	e/i	o/u	ö/ü
“I” (Ben)	-ıyorum	-ıyorum	-uyorum	-uyorum
“You” (Sen)	-ıyorsun	-ıyorsun	-uyorsun	-uyorsun
“He / she / it” (O)	-ıyor	-ıyor	-uyor	-uyor
“We” (Biz)	-ıyoruz	-ıyoruz	-uyoruz	-uyoruz
“You” (Siz)	-ıyorsunuz	-ıyorsunuz	-uyorsunuz	-uyorsunuz
“They” (Onlar)	-ıyorlar	-ıyorlar	-uyorlar	-uyorlar

Please take a look at the examples below:

Ben arıyorum. (“I am looking for.”)	Ben geliyorum. (“I am coming.”)	Ben soruyorum. (“I am asking.”)	Ben bölüyorum. (“I’m dividing.”)
Sen arıyorsun. (“You are looking for.”)	Sen geliyorsun. (“You are coming.”)	Sen soruyorsun. (“You are asking.”)	Sen bölüyorsun. (“You are dividing.”)
O arıyor. (“He / she / it is looking for.”)	O geliyor. (“He / she / it is coming.”)	O soruyor. (“He / she / it is asking.”)	O bölüyor. (“He / she / it is dividing.”)
Biz arıyoruz. (“We are looking for.”)	Biz geliyoruz. (“We are coming.”)	Biz soruyoruz. (“We are asking.”)	Biz bölüyoruz. (“We are dividing.”)
Siz arıyorsunuz. (“You are looking for.”)	Siz geliyorsunuz. (“You are coming.”)	Siz soruyorsunuz. (“You are asking.”)	Siz bölüyorsunuz. (“You are dividing.”)
Onlar arıyorlar. (“They are looking for.”)	Onlar geliyorlar. (“They are coming.”)	Onlar soruyorlar.  (“They are asking.”)	Onlar bölüyorlar. (“They are dividing.”)

E. Past Tense

To use the correct rule for past tense conjugations, you need to check the last vowel and the last letter of the verb. Study this Turkish conjugation table to see what we mean:

	Last vowel of the verb root
	a/ı		e/i		o/u		ö/ü
Person	If the very last letter of the verb root is one of these letters: ç/f/h/k/s/ş/t/p.	If the very last letter of the verb root contains the rest of the consonants.	If the very last letter of the verb root is one of these letters: ç/f/h/k/s/ş/t/p.	If the very last letter of the verb root contains the rest of the consonants.	If the very last letter of the verb root is one of these letters: ç/f/h/k/s/ş/t/p.	If the very last letter of the verb root contains the rest of the consonants.	If the very last letter of the verb root is one of these letters: ç/f/h/k/s/ş/t/p.	If the very last letter of the verb root contains the rest of the consonants.
“I” (Ben)	-tım	-dım	-tım	-dım	-tum	-dum	-tum	-dum
“You” (Sen)	-tın	-dın	-tın	-dın	-tun	-dun	-tun	-dun
“He / she / it” (O)	-tı	-dı	-tı	-dı	-tu	-du	-tu	-du
“We” (Biz)	-tık	-dık	-tık	-dık	-tuk	-duk	-tuk	-duk
“You” (Siz)	-tınız	-dınız	-tınız	-dınız	-tunuz	-dunuz	-tunuz	-dunuz
“They” (Onlar)	-tılar	-dılar	-tiler	-diler	-tular	-dular	-tüler	-düler

Below are some examples that will help you understand the Turkish conjugation for the past tense better:

Ben sattım. (“I sold.”)	Ben temizledim. (“I cleaned.”)	Ben oturdum. (“I sat down.”)	Ben öptüm. (“I kissed.”)
Sen sattın. (“You sold.”)	Sen temizledin. (“You cleaned.”)	Sen oturdun. (“You sat down.”)	Sen öptün. (“You kissed.”)
O sattı. (“He / she / it sold.”)	O temizledi. (“He / she / it cleaned.”)	O oturdu. (“He / she / it sat down.”)	O öptü. (“He / she / it kissed.”)
Biz sattık. (“We sold.”)	Biz temizledik. (“We cleaned.”)	Biz oturduk. (“We sat down.”)	Biz öptük. (“We kissed.”)
Siz sattınız. (“You sold.”)	Siz temizlediniz. (“You cleaned.”)	Siz oturdunuz. (“You sat down.”)	Siz öptünüz. (“You kissed.”)
Onlar sattılar. (“They sold.”)	Onlar temizlediler. (“They cleaned.”)	Onlar oturdular. (“They sat down.”)	Onlar öptüler. (“They kissed.”)

F. Future Tense

	Verbs ending with a consonant		Verbs ending with a vowel
Person	a/ı/o/u	e/i/ö/ü	a/ı/o/u	e/i/ö/ü
“I” (Ben)	-acağım	-eceğim	-[y]acağım	-[y]eceğim
“You” (Sen)	-acaksın	-eceksin	-[y]acaksın	-[y]eceksin
“He / she / it” (O)	-acak	-ecek	-[y]acak	-[y]ecek
“We” (Biz)	-acağız	-eceğiz	-[y]acağız	-[y]eceğiz
“You” (Siz)	-acaksınız	-eceksiniz	-[y]acaksınız	-[y]eceksiniz
“They” (Onlar)	-acaklar	-ecekler	-[y]acaklar	-[y]ecekler

There are two words that have an exception: demek (“to say,” “to tell”) and yemek (“to eat”). The letter e changes to i, and then the above-mentioned suffixes are added. For example:

• Ben yiyeceğim. (“I will eat.”)
• Sen diyeceksin. (“You will tell.”) 

Here are some examples:

Ben yazacağım. (“I will write.”)	Ben seçeceğim. (“I will choose.”)	Ben uyuyacağım. (“I will sleep.”)	Ben deneyeceğim. (“I will try.”)
Sen yazacaksın. (“You will write.”)	Sen seçeceksin. (“You will choose.”)	Sen uyuyacaksın. (“You will sleep.”)	Sen deneyeceksin. (“You will try.”)
O yazacak. (“He / she / it will write.”)	O seçecek. (“He / she / it will choose.”)	O uyuyacak. (“He / she / it will sleep.”)	O deneyecek. (“He / she / it will try.”)
Biz yazacağız. (“We will write.”)	Biz seçeceğiz. (“We will choose.”)	Biz uyuyacağız. (“We will sleep.”)	Biz deneyeceğiz. (“We will try.”)
Siz yazacaksınız. (“You will write.”)	Siz seçeceksiniz. (“You will choose.”)	Siz uyuyacaksınız. (“You will sleep.”)	Siz deneyeceksiniz. (“You will try.”)
Onlar yazacaklar. (“They will write.”)	Onlar seçecekler. (“They will choose.”)	Onlar uyuyacaklar. (“They will sleep.”)	Onlar deneyecekler. (“They will try.”)

G. Negativity

Creating the negative form of “to be” is simple. The word değil means “not,” and it takes the personal suffix. Let me explain it with examples:

Ben şişman değilim. “I am not fat.”

Sen şişman değilsin. “You are not fat.”

O şişman değil. “He / she / it is not fat.”

Biz şişman değiliz. “We are not fat.”

Siz şişman değilsiniz. “You are not fat.”

Onlar şişman değiller. “They are not fat.”

H. Interrogation

Let’s look at the present form of “yes or no” questions. Here are the words that turn a sentence into a closed question. I said “words” because they’re not suffixes, but separate words, which don’t mean anything when used alone.

	Last vowel of the last syllable
Person	a/ı	e/i	o/u	ö/ü
“I” (Ben)	mıyım?	mıyım?	müyüm?	müyüm?
“You” (Sen)	mısın?	mısın?	müsün?	müsün?
“He / she / it” (O)	mi?	mi?	mü?	mü?
“We” (Biz)	mıyız?	mıyız?	muyuz?	muyuz?
“You” (Siz)	mısınız?	mısınız?	musunuz?	musunuz?
“They” (Onlar)	mı?	mı?	mü?	mü?

Examples:

• Sen aşçı mısın?
  (“Are you a cook?”)
  Singular “you”

• Siz deli misiniz?
  (“Are you crazy?”)
  Plural “you”

• O tok mu?
  (“Is he / she / it full?”)

• Biz kötü müyüz?
  (“Are we bad?”)

3. Verb Modification

Now let’s look at a few different ways to modify verbs.

I. Passive

Verbs can be made passive by adding n if the verb ends with a vowel:

• Aramak – “To look for,” “To call”

The verb root is ara; it takes n and becomes:

• Aranmak – “To be looked for,” “To be called”

You can also add ıl, il, ul, or ül depending on the vowel harmony if the verb ends with a consonant other than l:

• Açmak – “To open”
• Açılmak – “To be opened”
• Yermek – “To criticize”
• Yerilmek – “To be criticized”
• Sunmak – “To offer”
• Sunulmak – “To be offered”
• Çözmek – “To resolve”
• Çözülmek – “To be resolved”

Finally, you can add ın, in, un, or ün depending on the vowel harmony if the verb ends with l: 

• Çalmak – “To steal”
• Çalınmak – “To be stolen”
• Silmek – “To delete”
• Silinmek – “To be deleted”
• Bulmak – “To find”
• Bulunmak – “To be found”
• Bölmek – “To divide”
• Bölünmek – “To be divided”

II. Causative

The causative verbs are formed by adding the causative suffix after the verb root according to the vowel harmony rules.

Add t if the verb ends with a vowel, or  r:

• Aramak – “To look for”
• Aratmak – “To have somebody look for”
• Oturmak – “To sit down”
• Oturtmak – “To seat somebody”

Add ır, ir, ur, or ür based on the vowel harmony if the verb stem ends with ş or ç:

• Düşmek – “To fall”
• Düşürmek – “To make somebody fall”
• İçmek – “To drink”
• İçirmek – “To have somebody drink”

Most verbs get the following suffixes based on the vowel harmony:

 dir, dır, dür, dur, tir, tır, tür, tur

• Gülmek – “To laugh”
• Güldürmek – “To make somebody laugh”

A few mono-syllable verbs ending in k take -it, -ıt, -üt, or -ut suffixes:

• Korkmak – “To be scared”
• Korkutmak – “To scare someone”
• Akmak – “To flow”
• Akıtmak – “To let something flow”

There are also some verbs  that take the -er and -ar suffixes:

• Kopmak – “To break off”
• Koparmak – “To make something break off”

There is one verb that’s irregular:

• Görmek – “To see”
• Göstermek – “To show”

Double causative verbs also exist: 

• Pişmek – “To cook” (ex: the meat cooks) 
• Pişirmek – “To cook” (ex: my wife cooks the meat) 
• Pişirtmek – “To have something cooked” 
• Ölmek – “To die” 
• Öldürmek – “To kill” 
• Öldürtmek – “To have someone killed” 

III. Reflexive

You can create a reflexive verb by adding the suffix -in. For example:

• Giymek – “To wear clothes“
• Giyinmek – “To dress oneself”

IV. Verbs of Mutual Action

Here are some examples:

• Görmek – “To see”
• Görüşmek – “To see one another” or “To converse”
• Görüşülmek – “To be conversed about”
• Görüştürmek – “To make conversation with one another”
• Görüştürülmek – “To be made to converse with one another”

4. Ready for a Challenge?

After all this information, are you ready for some Turkish verb conjugation practice? How about taking a short quiz to see how much information you’ve absorbed about Turkish conjugation?

1. How is the verb atlamak (“to jump”) conjugated in the first person plural as future tense?

a. Atladım

b. Atlayacağım

c.  Atlıyorsunuz

d. Atlayacağız

2. Complete the sentence with the correct present “to be” suffix.

Biz güzel….. (“We are beautiful.”)

a. dik

b. iz

c.  eceğiz

d. ıyoruz

3. Complete the sentence with the correct past tense suffix.

Ben gör…. (“I saw”)

a. düm

b. dük

c.   üm

d. eceğim

4. Complete the sentence with the correct present continuous tense suffix.

Sen iç…….. (“You are drinking”)

a. tim

b. sın

c.  eceğim

d. iyorsun

5. Complete the sentence with the correct modal verb suffix.

Siz koş………. (“You must run”)

a. abilirsiniz

b. acaksınız

c.  malısınız

d. uyorsunuz

Are you looking for the answer key? If so, you need to read the rest to get to it!

5. Conclusion

How does it feel to learn about those Turkish conjugation rules? Seems like too much info, huh? If you have combined all the Turkish verb conjugation charts and created a Turkish verbs conjugation PDF file for yourself, then you can refresh your memory whenever you need to. Furthermore, make sure to visit our website, TurkishClass101.com, to reinforce what you’ve learned.

Please keep in touch with us to share your learning experience.

Last but not least, here are the answers to the quiz:

1.d; 2.b; 3.a; 4.d; 5.c

Action, occurrence, process, condition, and state of being—don’t these words remind us of flow or the dynamism of life? Of course they do, but beyond that, when one of these concepts is conveyed in a word or a group of words, they’re known as verbs. Verbs are an important aspect in the structure of a sentence.

In our previous articles, we talked about “100 Nouns” and “Pronouns” in Turkish. Now, it’s time to learn about the missing part, Turkish verbs, to be able to make full sentences.

A verb’s placement in a sentence may vary depending on the language.

All Turkish verbs are placed at the end of the sentence. The object follows the subject in a sentence, and then comes the verb.

Good news! There’s no grammatical gender in Turkish, so the verbs don’t change according to gender. However, depending on the tense, the Turkish verb cases are created by adding personal suffixes based on the personal pronouns used.

Let’s see how to say “verb” in Turkish:

· Fiil – “Verb”

Now that we have the basics out of the way, let’s take a look at our common Turkish verbs list and broaden your vocabulary!

Table of Contents

1. Turkish Infinitive Verbs
2. Types of Turkish Language Verbs
3. Other Common Turkish Verbs and Their Usage in Sentences
4. Learn About Advanced Turkish Verbs with TurkishClass101

1. Turkish Infinitive Verbs

The infinitive form of a verb is the uninflected form of that verb.

Positive

The positive infinitive forms of all Turkish verbs take the -mak or -mek suffix at the end based on vowel harmony. If the last vowel of the verb is “a, ı, o, u,” the suffix -mak is used. If the last vowel of the verb is “e, i, ö, ü,” then the suffix -mek is used.

You can start creating your own personal list of important Turkish verbs for your studies with the most common Turkish verbs below:

Düşmek – “To fall”

Gelmek – “To come”

Gitmek – “To go”

Giyinmek – “To get dressed”

Göstermek – “To show”

İçmek – “To drink”

Öğrenmek – “To learn”

Söylemek – “To say,” “To tell”

Temizlemek – “To clean”

Yemek – “To eat”

Açmak – “To open”

Aramak – “To look for”

Bakmak – “To look”

Bulmak – “To find”

Buluşmak – “To meet”

Dokunmak – “To touch”

Konuşmak – “To talk”

Kullanmak – “To use”

Okumak – “To read”

Tutmak – “To hold”

Yazmak – “To write”

Negative

There are also negative verb infinitives in Turkish (ex: “not to make,” “not to teach,” etc.). In this case, the verb is followed by the negative suffix -ma or -me based on the vowel harmony mentioned above. Then comes -mak after -ma and -mek after -me negative suffixes. Here are some negative Turkish verbs with English translations:

Yapmamak (Yap-ma-mak) – “Not to do,” “Not to make”

Almamak (Al-ma-mak) – “Not to take”

Boyamamak (Boya-ma-mak) – “Not to color,” “Not to paint”

Kırmamak (Kır-ma-mak) – “Not to break”

Kaçmamak (Kaç-ma-mak) – “Not to escape”

Gitmemek (Git-me-mek) – “Not to go”

Öğrenmemek (Öğren-me-mek) – “Not to learn”

Öğretmemek (Öğret-me-mek) – “Not to teach”

Çizmemek (Çiz-me-mek) – “Not to draw”

Silmemek (Sil-me-mek) – “Not to erase,” “Not to delete”

2. Types of Turkish Language Verbs

Action verbs

Action verbs are verbs that indicate an action, as the name suggests. They describe what someone or something does.

Below are some action verbs in Turkish:

Koşmak – “To run”

Oynamak – “To play”

Gülmek – “To laugh”

Yürümek – “To walk”

There are two types of action verbs: Transitive and Intransitive.

Turkish Transitive Verbs 

A transitive verb is followed by a noun or noun phrase that receives the action of the verb, which is called the “direct object.”

Transitive verbs sometimes have indirect objects, which name the object to whom or for whom the action was done.

For example:

Mike annesini arıyor. – “Mike is calling his mother.”

Verb in Turkish	Verb in English	Direct Object in Turkish	Direct Object in English	Indirect Object in Turkish	Indirect Object in English
Aramak	To call	Annesi	His mother	N/A	N/A

Mary kitabı Jane’e verdi. – “Mary gave Jane the book.”

Verb in Turkish	Verb in English	Direct Object in Turkish	Direct Object in English	Indirect Object in Turkish	Indirect Object in English
Vermek	To give	Kitabı	The book	Jane	Jane

A small clue for you: If you can make the sentence passive, then it means it uses a transitive verb.

Turkish Intransitive Verbs

An intransitive verb doesn’t have a direct or indirect object. It may be followed by an adverb or adverbial phrase, but there’s no object to receive its action. Let’s see how intransitive Turkish verbs fit into sentences:

Çocuk ağladı. – “The boy cried.”

Verb in Turkish	Verb in English	Direct Object	Indirect Object
Ağlamak	To cry	N/A	N/A

State Verbs

A state verb describes a state of being, not an action.

State verbs generally fall into four groups. Let’s discover some of these useful Turkish verbs:

Emotion: 

Sevmek – “To love”

Nefret etmek – “To hate”

İstemek – “To want”

Possession: 

Sahip olmak – “To have,” “To own”

Ait olmak – “To belong”

Sense: 

Görmek – “To see”

Duymak – “To hear”

Koklamak – “To smell”

Thought: 

Bilmek – “To know”

İnanmak – “To believe”

Hatırlamak – “To remember”

Düşünmek – “To think”

Verbs that Describe Occurrences

These are verbs that describe a sudden change that’s not necessarily intentional. The event that occurs on or to the object is involuntary, and there’s usually a time factor involved here. These verbs don’t take any objects and are therefore intransitive verbs.

For example:

Bugün hastalandım. – “I got sick today.”

Here are some Turkish verbs that describe occurrences:

Acıkmak – “To get hungry”

Soğumak – “To get cold,” “To cool”

Uzamak – “To get taller”

Bayatlamak – “To get stale”  

Körelmek – “To become blunt” 

Turkish Auxiliary Verbs

An auxiliary verb is also called a helping verb. The main auxiliary verbs in Turkish are etmek, olmak, yapmak, kılmak, and eylemek.

These essential Turkish verbs are explained in detail below:

Etmek  – “To do,” “To make,” “To perform”

This word isn’t usually used as a verb by itself. It’s used with other words, some of which are Arabic and Persian. However, although many Arabic words don’t follow the rules of vowel harmony, any Turkish suffixes added will always be based on the final vowel in the word.

For example:

Teşekkür etmek – “Thank you”

Takdir etmek – “To appreciate”

If the verb is formed with a single-syllable word, then the word etmek gets combined with the root word. If the word ends in a consonant, that letter will generally double.  

Af – “Pardon”

Affetmek – “To forgive”

Ret – “Refusal” 

Reddetmek – “To refuse”

Other usages of this helping word are:

Mutlu etmek – “To make happy”

Kabul etmek – “To accept”

Teslim etmek – “To deliver”

Kontrol etmek – “To check,” “To control”

Olmak – “To be”

This is the verb “to be” in Turkish. It also means “to become,” “to happen,” or “to occur.”

Although the verb’s meaning is stated above, it has a different meaning when used as a helping verb, as shown below:

Sahip olmak – “To have”

Pişman olmak – “To regret”

Mutlu olmak – “To be happy”  

Yapmak  – “To do,” “To make”

 Here are some verbs that can be formed when yapmak is used as an auxiliary verb:

Bakım yapmak – “To maintain”

Katkı yapmak – “To contribute”

Prova yapmak – “To rehearse”

Eylemek – “To carry out “

Eylemek can substitute etmek and serves the same purpose. It’s usually used in writing and is very seldomly used in conversations.

Sabreylemek – “To be patient”

Reddeylemek – “To refuse”

Niyaz eylemek – “To supplicate”

Arz eylemek – “To present,” “To offer”

Seyreylemek – “To watch”

Kılmak – “To make,” “To do”

When used as a helping verb, the meaning of this verb changes. Here are some examples for you:

Namaz kılmak – “To perform prayer”

Mecbur kılmak – “To oblige someone to do (something)”

Zorunlu kılmak – “To oblige”

3. Other Common Turkish Verbs and Their Usage in Sentences

Now we’ll introduce you to other useful and common Turkish verbs, as well as their usage in simple sentences. Keep in mind while reading the examples that we’ll be going over how to conjugate Turkish verbs in a future article.

By the time you get to the end of this article, you’ll know around 100 Turkish verbs. It might be a good idea to add the following words to your own Turkish verbs list for easy reference as you study. Are you ready to expand your Turkish verb vocabulary? Let’s go.

Satmak – “To sell”

Evimi satıyorum. – “I’m selling my house.”

Oturmak – “To sit”

Ben şimdi oturuyorum. – “I’m sitting now.”

Kalkmak – “To get up”

Her sabah 6’da kalkarım. – “I get up at six every morning.”

Kapatmak – “To close”

Linda kapıyı kapatıyor. – “Linda is closing the door.”

Uyumak – “To sleep”

Annem uyuyor. – “My mother is sleeping.”

Fırçalamak – “To brush”

Kızım saçlarını fırçalıyor. – “My daughter is brushing her hair.”

Yüzmek – “To swim”

Eşim her gün yüzer. – “My husband swims every day.”

Unutmak – “To forget”

Kitabımı evde unuttum. – “I forgot my book at home.”

Çalışmak – “To study,” “To work”

Türkçe çalışıyorum. – “I’m studying Turkish.”

Kaçırmak – “To miss”

Otobüsü kaçırdım. – “I missed the bus.”

Yaşamak – “To live”

Türkiye’de yaşıyorum. – “I live in Turkey.”

Uyanmak – “To wake up”

Her sabah 6’da uyanıyorum. – “I wake up at six every morning.”

Atmak – “To throw”

Lütfen bana topu at. – “Please throw the ball to me.”

Hatırlamak – “To remember”

Seni hatırlıyorum. – “I remember you.”

Last, but not least, we would like to talk about the verb yapmak, which means both “to do” and “to make.” We do want to emphasize that this word has a wide range of uses.

Ödev yapmak – “To do homework”

İş yapmak – “To do work,” “To do business”

Saçını yapmak – “To do hair”

Alışveriş yapmak – “To do shopping”

Hata yapmak – “To make a mistake”

Kahve yapmak – “To make coffee”

Kek yapmak – “To make a cake”

Şaka yapmak – “To make a joke”

Gözlem yapmak – “To make an observation”

Liste yapmak – “To make a list”

4. Learn About Advanced Turkish Verbs with TurkishClass101

Wasn’t it easy to learn the 100 most common Turkish verbs via one article? Why not shoot for 500 Turkish verbs? Do you want to know how to learn Turkish verbs quickly and easily?

First of all, don’t lose any time and visit our website. Then, make sure to include all of the Turkish verbs we went over to a personal Turkish verbs list. As you proceed to Turkish verb conjugation, you can create a study guide or PDF file for this as well. Further, be sure to take full advantage of the dictionary on our website—it will make your life so much easier!

Please let us know in the comments section if this Turkish verbs guide was helpful to you! Is there anything you’re not quite sure about after reading it? Note that every detail you learn will contribute to your success in speaking Turkish fluently!

Happy learning! 

Pronouns, in general, help to prevent repeating nouns, which can be annoying. During conversations

or while writing, one should avoid doing this for the sake of clarity. Redundancy only causes confusion.

Pronouns in Turkish language-learning are essential, because having a good command of Turkish pronouns will help you be a better, more efficient speaker and writer of the language. Pronunciation is also key; check out this Turkish pronouns list to hear the correct pronunciation of each word and expand upon your pronouns in Turkish vocabulary. 

Make sure you’re pronouncing the whole word, because every letter counts. Turkish is a very efficient language and relies heavily on short suffixes (sometimes made up of just one letter) to get the message across. Unlike in English, Turkish words may take on different suffixes, some of which express grammatical tenses. There’s an order to how the different types of suffixes are added; according to this order, the personal pronoun suffixes are added at the end of the word, as the last suffix.

Take a look at this example:

• Ben gelmiştim.
  “I had come.”

In the English sentence, grammatical tense is expressed through the word “had.” In the Turkish sentence, instead of using a separate word, we add the suffix -miş (for past tense), then we add the pronoun ending -m to state that the subject is the first person singular.

But not all pronouns are formed this way. There are two types of Turkish pronouns:

1. Stand-alone pronouns 
2. Pronouns that are added as suffixes

It’s important to know both kinds, because failing to use them correctly could lead to misunderstandings. We’ll cover each kind below as we look into different forms of pronouns and learn through Turkish pronouns examples. Make sure to find the most efficient and unique way you’re able to learn this important grammar topic. When studying pronouns in Turkish, lessons like this are helpful, but can only go so far.

Table of Contents

1. Turkish Personal Pronouns
2. Turkish Possessive Pronouns
3. Demonstrative Pronouns in Turkish
4. Turkish Interrogative Pronouns
5. Turkish Indefinite Pronouns
6. Turkish Relative Pronouns
7. The Turkish Reflexive Pronoun
8. Suffixed Pronouns in Turkish
9. Things to Remember about the Use of Turkish Pronouns
10. Conclusion

1. Turkish Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns are the most common type of pronoun. Here, we’ll go over personal pronouns in Turkish, phrases to help you understand how they work, and more information. 

1- 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Person Singular Pronouns

• Ben (I): Ben çok yoruldum. “I am very tired.”

• Sen (you) Sen çok yoruldun. “You are very tired.”

• O (he/she) O çok yoruldu. “He/she/it is very tired.”

• Please note that the third singular person o is a Turkish gender-neutral pronoun.

• Unlike in English, in Turkish we add a suffix to the verb to emphasize the person. In daily life or conversational writing, Ben çok yoruldum could be replaced by a mere Çok yoruldum. Omitting the stand-alone pronoun doesn’t change the meaning. But stating it helps to emphasize that the subject is the first person.

• Even when using stand-alone pronouns, we must take care to add the appropriate endings to the verb. As you can see in the examples above, we add  -m, -n, and no endings to the verb for the first, second, and third person respectively.

2- 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Person Plural Pronouns

• Biz (we):       Biz çok yorulduk. “We are very tired.”

• Siz (you):     Siz çok yoruldunuz. “You are very tired.”

• Onlar (they): Onlar çok yoruldular. “They are very tired.”

• The first, second, and third persons require adding a -k, -nuz, and -lar, respectively, to emphasize the subject.

A. Object Forms: 

• Ben (Me)
  Beni seviyorlar.
  “They love me.”

Add suffix: i, ı, o, ö, u, or ü according to the vowel pattern.

B. Formal / Honorific or Informal / Casual Forms: 

Biz; Siz (We; You) are used like the royal “we.” The plural meaning doubles as an honorific.

Example: 
Biz size emrettik.
“We ordered you.”

Here, both “we” and “you” are used formally and have plural meanings.

C. Direct Forms:

 Add -i: 
Ali ipi aldı.
“Ali took the string.”

Explanation:
ip + i

2. Turkish Possessive Pronouns

Possessive pronouns are what allow you to identify the owner of something without using the same noun over and over. Learn about Turkish possessive pronouns in this section to increase your Turkish skills and knowledge. 

Add -m to ben; add -n to sen; add nothing to o. 

Example: Benim kalemim. “My pencil.”

     Senin kalemin. “Your pencil.”

     Onun kalemi. “His/Her pencil.”

3. Demonstrative Pronouns in Turkish

Here are some demonstrative pronouns with examples of them in sentences. Notice the suffix that emphasizes the person respectively. 

Bu (This):
Bu kalem benim.
“This pencil is mine.”

Bunlar (These):
Bu kalemler benim.
“These pencils are mine.”

Plural (add -ler to the noun) 

O (That):
O kalem benim.
“That pencil is mine.”

Onlar (Those):
O kalemler benim.
“Those pencils are mine.”

Plural (add -ler to the noun)

1- Add a suffix (-ler/lar) to Make Plural: 

Bu beyaz.            “This is white.”
Bunlar beyaz. “These are white.”

2- Demonstrating Place: Burada; Orada: 

Burada (Here):
Ev burada.
“The house is here.”

Orada (There):         
Ev orada.
“The house is there.”

4. Turkish Interrogative Pronouns

• Ne (What):
  Sen ne hazırladın?
  “What did you prepare?”

• Hangisi (Which):
  Hangisi senin?
  “Which (one) is yours?”

• Kim/Kimin (Who/Whom/Whose):
  O elbise kimin?
  O elbise kimin?

• Nerede (Where):
  Senin evin nerede?
  “Where is your house?”

• Ne zaman (When):
  Ne zaman eve geldin?
  “When did you come home?”

• Neden (Why):
  Neden ekmek aldın?
  “Why did you get bread?”

5. Turkish Indefinite Pronouns

• Herkes (everyone/everybody):
  Herkes sevilmek ister.
  “Everyone wants to be loved.”

• Her yer (everywhere):
  Her yer karanlık.
  “Everywhere is dark.”

• Her şey (everything):
  Her şey hazır.
  “Everything is ready.”

• Birisi (Someone/somebody):
  Birisi benim çantamı getirmiş.
  “Somebody brought my bag.”

• Bir yer/bir yerler (somewhere):
  Ekmek satan bir yer biliyor musun?
  “Do you know somewhere we can get bread?”

• Bir şey (something):
  Sen bir şey saklıyorsun!
  “You are hiding something!”

• Hiç kimse (no one/nobody):
  Hiç kimse onu sevmiyor.
  “No one likes him/her.”

• Hiçbir yer (nowhere):
  Hiçbir yer İstanbul’a benzemez.
  “There’s nowhere like Istanbul.”

• Hiçbir şey (nothing):
  Bana hiçbir şey almadı.
  “He bought me nothing.”

• Kimse/Herhangi biri (anyone/anybody):
  Kimse var mı?
  “Is anybody there?”

• Herhangi bir yer (anywhere):
  Ben istediğim herhangi bir yere gidebilirim.
  “I can go anywhere I want.”

• Herhangi bir şey (anything):
  Herhangi bir şey istiyor musun?
  “Do you want anything?”

6. Turkish Relative Pronouns

Turkish relative pronouns are as follows:

• Which (hangi)
• That (o)
• Who (kim)
• Whom (kim)
• Whose (kimin)

In Turkish, you usually add a suffix to the noun even though you’ve used a relative pronoun:

relative pronoun + noun + relative suffix

Example 1:
Hangi ev senin? O ev benim.
“Which house is yours? That is mine.”

Example 2:
Kim ödevini yaptı?
“Who did their homework?”
Explanation: ödevini (ödev + ini)

Example 3:
Kimin kedisi miyavladı?
“Whose cat meowed?”
Explanation: kedisi (kedi + si)

7. The Turkish Reflexive Pronoun

The pronoun kendi (or “myself” in English) is used to emphasize the subject. You may see a personal pronoun plus the reflexive pronoun in the same sentence. Take a look at this example:

• Ben keki kendim yedim.
  “I ate the cake by myself.”

The meaning is the same when we omit the word kendim, but adding it emphasizes the fact that “I” was the one who ate.

According to the person, the reflexive or intensive pronoun kendi takes on different pronoun suffixes.

Singular

• Kendim
  Myself

• Kendin
  Yourself

• Kendi
  Himself/Herself

Plural

• Kendimiz
  Ourselves

• Kendileri
  Yourselves

• Kendileri
  Theirselves/Themselves

8. Suffixed Pronouns in Turkish

1. Motion Toward Suffixes

Add -e/-a to imply moving toward an object/person:

Bana (to me)

Sana (to you)

Ona (to him/her)

Bize (to us)

Size (to you)

Onlara (to them)

Examples:

Bana gidelim. Sana gidelim. Ona gidelim. (Singular: Let’s go to my / your / his place.)

Bize gidelim. Size gidelim. Onlara gidelim. (Plural: Let’s go to our / your / their place.)

2. Static Condition Suffixes

Add -de-da to a pronoun to imply a condition:

Bende (with* me)

Sende (with you)

Onda (with him/her)

Bizde (with us)

Sizde (with you – plural)

Onlarda (with them)

*note: depending on the context -de can be also translated as “in, on, at”

Examples:

Çanta bende. Çanta sende. Çanta onda. (Singular: The bag is with me / you / him.)

Çanta bizde. Çanta sizde. Çanta onlarda. (Plural: The bag is with us / you / them.)

3. Motion Away Suffixes

Add -den/-dan to imply moving away from something:

Benden (from me)

Senden (from you)

Ondan (from him/her)

Bizden (from us)

Sizden (from you – plural)

Onlardan (from them)

Examples:

Kedi benden kaçtı. Kedi senden kaçtı. Kedi ondan kaçtı. (Singular: The cat ran from me / you / him.)

Kedi bizden kaçtı. Kedi sizden kaçtı. Kedi onlardan kaçtı. (Plural: The cat ran from us / you / them.)

9. Things to Remember about the Use of Turkish Pronouns

Turkish pronouns and suffixes are short, but they add loads of meaning to a word or a whole sentence. Turkish differs from English in the way it relies heavily on suffixes to convey meaning quickly and easily. 

Here are a few points to take care of when using pronouns:

• The nasal -m and -n endings: The first and second person suffixes are both nasal sounds and may be easily confused. Take care not to. You could add a pronoun to emphasize which person you’re referring to, if this is helpful to you.

• Turkish is a genderless language. When it comes to Turkish pronouns, gender doesn’t matter; there’s no gender-specific pronouns for the third person. This is something that may take getting used to for English-speakers. You may need to add a noun after the pronoun, such as kadın meaning “woman,”  kız meaning “girl,” adam meaning “man,” or oğlan meaning “boy” to specify who you’re referring to.

Examples:

• Onu gördün mü? 
  “Did you see him/her?”

• Kimi gördüm mü?
  “Who are you talking about?”

• O kızı gördün mü?
  “Did you see her?”

• Because pronouns are used to replace nouns, it’ll be useful to strengthen your vocabulary with more nouns and adjectives. Having an expansive vocabulary will enable you to express yourself better. You can practice from noun lists and lists of adjectives to support your language-learning.

Once you get the hang of it, pronouns aren’t that hard to master. Make sure to practice reading and listening to Turkish so you’re immersed in the language for long periods and are exposed to all the sentence and word patterns.

Next, how about exploring further with adverbs and phrases for connecting thoughts? 

10. Conclusion

Before you go, let us know in the comments how you feel about Turkish pronouns so far. Do you find them difficult still, or are you getting the hang of it? We look forward to hearing from you!

Learn Turkish pronouns at TurkishClass101! You’ll find a wealth of resources and fun ways to engage in learning Turkish, including more insightful blog posts like this one and free Turkish vocabulary lists to help you broaden your word knowledge! Learning a new language can seem like an impossible task at times, but know that with enough determination and hard work, you’ll be speaking, reading, and writing Turkish like a native!

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Have you ever played with Legos or blocks? You may find this question odd, so let me explain. 

I think that words resemble individual Legos or blocks. If you put them together randomly, you’re not going to build a meaningful structure. The same is true for words. 

Depending on the characteristics of a language, words have to be in a certain order to form meaningful sentences. You can’t just put one after the other with a hit-or-miss approach. This makes Turkish word order and sentence structure a can’t-miss aspect of learning the language.

Would you like to learn about word order in Turkish grammar and basic sentence structure in Turkish? Then I recommend that you read through this article carefully and take notes on the most significant points.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction to Turkish Sentence Structure
2. First Stop: SOV Word Order in Regular Sentences
3. Second Stop: Word Order in Inverted Sentences
4. Third Stop: Word Order in Elliptical Sentences
5. Next Stop: Word Order in Prepositional Phrases
6. Another Stop: Placing Modifiers in a Turkish Sentence
7. Turning Simple Turkish Sentence Structures into Complex Ones
8. The Journey isn’t Over Yet!

1. Introduction to Turkish Sentence Structure

Word order is basically the sequence in which words are placed in a sentence. As I mentioned above, it’s important to learn this because placing words in the wrong order will result in nonsense, ambiguity, confusion, and incorrect sentences.

Now, let’s learn about word order in Turkish grammar!

The typical Turkish word order is SOV (Subject-Object-Verb), which means that the subject comes first, followed by an object, and then a verb. Let’s go over what a subject, object, and verb are:

• A subject is the person or thing that performs the action.
• An object is a noun or noun phrase that the verb affects.
• A verb is a word that represents an action or state.

Here’s an example:

• Ben Türkçe öğreniyorum. – “I am learning Turkish.”

    Subject    Object   Verb   (SOV)

Hang on to your hat now; I have good news. Turkish word order is more flexible than word order in English! You can put an object or a verb at the beginning of a sentence. The meaning won’t change, but the word you’re stressing will definitely change. 

Here are some examples of how Turkish language word order can vary:

Subject-Object-Verb	Ben kızımı özlüyorum.	“I miss my daughter.”
Subject-Verb-Object	Ben özlüyorum kızımı.	“I miss my daughter.”
Object-Subject-Verb	Kızımı ben özlüyorum.	“I miss my daughter.”
Object-Verb-Subject	Kızımı özlüyorum ben.	“I miss my daughter.”
Verb-Subject-Object	Özlüyorum ben kızımı.	“I miss my daughter.”
Verb-Object-Subject	Özlüyorum kızımı ben.	“I miss my daughter.”

As you can see, I mixed the word order quite a bit and still expressed the same thing. However, the emphasis is on different words, which are indicated in blue text.

There’s one point that I emphasize in almost all of the articles I write, and that is: Turkish personal pronouns are usually not used in sentences. This is because the suffixes at the end of verbs imply the pronoun.

There are different types of sentences in Turkish, based on certain factors. We’ll just take a look at the types according to the sequence of words. These types are:

• Regular sentences
• Inverted sentences
• Elliptical sentences

Now let’s begin dissecting the word order rules in Turkish for regular sentences.

2. First Stop: SOV Word Order in Regular Sentences

In the regular Turkish sentence structure, verbs are placed at the end.

1- Positive Sentences

•  Yarın alışverişe gideceğim. – “I will go shopping tomorrow.”
•  Okul bugün başladı. – “The school started today.”
• Bugün çok hastayım. – “I am very sick today.”

2- Negative Sentences

• Yarın alışverişe gitmeyeceğim. – “I won’t go shopping tomorrow.”
• Okul bugün başlamadı. – “The school didn’t start today.”
•  Bugün hasta değilim. – “I am not sick today.”

3- Imperative Sentences

• Buraya gel! – “Come here!”
• Acele et! – “Hurry up!”
• Çeneni kapa! – “Shut up!”

4- Interrogative Sentences

There are two different types of interrogative sentences:

A- Questions with Question Words

In regular sentences, question words usually come first. However, they can also come right before the verb without changing the meaning. The verb is placed at the end of this type of interrogative sentence. 

• Ne zaman alışverişe gideceksin? – “When will you go shopping?”

Alışverişe ne zaman gideceksin?

• Hangi okula başladın? – “Which school did you start?”
• Neden hastalandın? – “Why did you get sick?”
• Nereye gideceksin? – “Where will you go?”
• Bugün ne yapacaksın? – “What will you do today?”

B- Yes-or-No Questions

To create a yes-or-no question, interrogative particles (-mı,-mi, -mu, -mü, and their conjugated forms) are placed at the end, and the verbs come right before them.

• Yarın alışverişe gidecek misin? – “Will you go shopping tomorrow?”
• Okul bugün başladı mı? – “Did the school start today?”
• Bugün hasta mısın? – “Are you sick today?”

3. Second Stop: Word Order in Inverted Sentences

In this case, verbs can be placed anywhere in the sentence, except at the end. 

Inverted sentences are usually used:

• In daily conversations
• In poems
• In proverbs (to make the words rhyme)
• As short answers to questions

1- Positive Sentences

• Alışverişe gideceğim yarın. – “I will go shopping tomorrow.”
• Okul başladı bugün. – “The school started today.”
• Çok hastayım bugün. – “I am very sick today.”

2- Negative Sentences

• Alışverişe gitmeyeceğim yarın. – “I won’t go shopping tomorrow.”
• Bugün başlamadı okul. – “The school didn’t start today.”
• Hasta değilim bugün. – “I am not sick today.”

3- Imperative Sentences

• Gel buraya! – “Come here!”
• Kapa çeneni! – “Shut up!”
• Çık dışarı! – “Get out!”

4- Interrogative Sentences

• Alışverişe gidecek misin yarın? – “Will you go shopping tomorrow?”
• Bugün başladı mı okul? – “Did the school start today?”
• Hastalandın mı bugün? – “Did you get sick today?”
• Ne zaman gideceksin alışverişe? – “When will you go shopping?”
• Ne yapacaksın bugün? – “What will you do today?”
• Nerede seyrettin o filmi? – “Where did you watch that movie?”
• Neden gelmediniz dün? – “Why didn’t you come yesterday?”

4. Third Stop: Word Order in Elliptical Sentences

Sentences that don’t have verbs are called elliptical sentences. As you’ll remember, there aren’t separate words for “is” and “are” in Turkish, but there are suffixes that are added to the nouns. These suffixes give the meaning of the verb “to be.” In noun clauses, if the “to be” verb is skipped, then they become elliptical sentences. There’s also another case in which the verb is omitted and the reader is expected to complete the sentence.

1- Sentences Where the Judgment is Up to the Reader

• Yepyeni bir başlangıç… – “A brand-new start…”
• Şahane bir manzara… – “Fantastic scenery…”
• Akıllıca! – “Reasonable!”

2- Noun Clauses

• Orası çok uzak. – “That place is too far.”
• O güzel bir kız. – “She is a beautiful girl.”

3- Coordinating Conjunctions

• Önce yemek, sonra oynayabilirsin. – “First food, then you can play.”
• Önce süt, sonra yatmalısın. – “First milk, then you have to go to bed.”
• Haydi, duşa, sonra da akşam yemeği yiyeceğiz. – “Come on to the shower, and then we will have dinner.”

5. Next Stop: Word Order in Prepositional Phrases

Prepositional phrases give us more details about nouns and verbs in a sentence. Basically, they help us understand a sentence better. They might function as adjectives or adverbs.

Prepositions normally come after a noun in Turkish. For example: Araba [noun] ile [preposition] (“By car”).

A preposition forms a prepositional phrase when it combines with the preceding words or word groups. It becomes a modifier in this case. In Turkish, the modified element is placed at the end. However, in prepositional phrases, it’s a dependent element and is placed at the beginning. This is a situation that doesn’t follow the rules.

For example:

İstanbul’a araba ile gidecekler. – “They will go to Istanbul by car.”

Here are more examples of the word order in Turkish sentences when prepositional phrases are used:

• Benim için sorun yok. – “No problem for me.”
• Okula doğru yürüdüm. – “I walked towards school.”
• Bir çiçek kadar güzelsin. – “You are as beautiful as a flower.”
• Çocuğun gürültüsüyle uyandı. – “He/she woke up from the noise of the child.” 
• Ok gibi kirpikleri var. – “He/she has eyelashes like arrows.”
• Uykusuzluğuna rağmen arabayı kullandı. – “Despite his/her sleeplessness, he/she drove the car.”

1- Adverbs of Manner

If a preposition is grouped with an abstract word, then it becomes an adverb of manner. An adverb of manner is usually placed before the verb, and it expresses how the action is performed.

• Bana sevinçle sarıldı. – “He/she hugged me happily.” (How did he/she hug?)
• Soruları hızlıca yanıtladı. – “He/she answered the questions quickly.” (How did he/she answer the questions?)

2- Adverbs of Time

Some of the time-related words become adverbs of time when grouped together with other words. These adverbs are located at the beginning of the sentence, unless the sentence has a subject.

• Sabaha kadar ders çalıştık. – “We studied until the morning.” (How long did we study?)
• Akşama doğru vardık. – “We arrived towards the evening.”

3- Adverbs of Place

Adverbs of place are generally placed before the verb. However, unlike adverbs of manner, they can be placed in other parts of a sentence.

• Beri gel, konuşalım. – “Come near me, so we can talk.”
• Öğretmen içeri girdi. – “The teacher came inside.”

 

6. Another Stop: Placing Modifiers in a Turkish Sentence

What is a Modifier?

It’s a word, phrase, or clause that functions as an adjective or adverb. A modifier provides additional information or details about another word or word group for more emphasis, thus changing or clarifying a sentence.

A modifier can also be a group of words that gives more information about a noun to answer the “which” question. Other ones are groups of words that answer the “when,” “where,” “how,” or “why” questions.

A noun can modify another noun by taking place immediately before it:

• Mutfak masası – “Kitchen table”
• Trafik lambası – “Traffic light” 

Present participles can modify nouns:

• Gülümseyen çocuk – “Smiling kid”
• Koşan adam – “Running man”

Past participles can modify nouns:

• Yanmış ekmek – “Burnt bread”
• Sönmüş balon – “Deflated balloon”  

   Demonstrative adjectives:

• Şu ev – “That house”
• Bu anahtar – “This key”

In Turkish, modifiers are always used before nouns, except for certain cases when the modifiers come after the pronoun or noun. 

Prepositional phrases: We covered this topic above.

Adjective clauses:

•  Bahçede basketbol oynayan çocuklar – “Children who are playing basketball in the garden”
• Sokakta bağıran çocuklar – “Children who are screaming on the street”

Articles: Only the indefinite article bir is used before nouns in Turkish:

• Bir tren – “A train”
• Bir ülke – “A country”

There’s no definite article “the” as a separate word in the Turkish language. When definite nouns or pronouns are used as an object, then they take the -ı, -i, -u, or -ü suffixes based on the vowel harmony rules.

Definite nouns as objects:

• Defter – i aldım. -“I took the notebook.”
• Atkı – (y)ı yıkadım. – “I washed the scarf.”

Proper nouns as objects:

When proper nouns are used as objects, they also get the -ı, -i, -u, or -ü suffixes based on the vowel harmony rules. Unlike in English, proper nouns can be used with definite articles in Turkish, meaning that they also take suffixes. 

• Geçen hafta Mary’yi gördüm. – “I saw Mary last week.”
• James’i özledim. – “I missed James.”

Pronouns as objects:

• Biz-i unuttunuz. – “You forgot us.”
• O-nu özledim. – “I missed him/her/it.”

 If a definite noun is used as the subject of a sentence, it does not need the suffixes mentioned above.

• Annem bana bir kedi aldı, ama kedi kaçtı. – “My mother bought me a cat, but the cat ran away.”

Similarly, when active sentences are transformed into passive ones, the objects that become subjects don’t take the suffixes:

• Kırmızı bardağı kırdım. – “I broke the red glass.” (Active voice)
• Kırmızı bardak kırıldı. – “The red glass was broken.” (Passive voice) 

Possessive pronouns:

In Turkish, there aren’t separate words to express possessive pronouns. However, the -m, -ım, -im, -um, and -üm suffixes (in conjugated forms) come after the pronoun to make it possessive.

• Benim – “My”
• Onların – “Their”

Possessive pronouns can be ignored because the nouns they’re modifying also take suffixes, which imply the possessive pronoun. However, if you need to emphasize the possessive pronoun for some reason, then you can use it in the sentence.

• Benim odam çok küçük. – “My room is very small.”
• Odam çok küçük. – “My room is very small.”

• Sizin arabanız nerede? – “Where is your car?”
• Arabanız nerede? – “Where is your car?”

The infinitives can also be used in noun compounds. There are four kinds of infinitives in Turkish:

1. The -mek and -mak infinitives. Ex: gelmek (“to come”) and oynamak “(to play”). These infinitives are not used in noun compounds.

2. The -me and -ma infinitives. Ex: gelme (“to come”) and oynama (“to play”).

•  Çocuğun ağlaması hepimizi üzdü. – “The child’s crying saddened all of us.”
• Yemeğin pişmesini bekliyorum. – “I’m waiting for the food to cook.”

3. The -dik, -dık, -dük, -duk, -tik, -tık, -tük, and -tuk infinitives.

• Kızımın neden ağladığını bilmiyorum. – “I don’t know why my daughter is crying.”
• Ne istediğini söylemelisin. – “You must say what you want.”

4. The -iş, -ış, -üş, and -uş infinitives. They’re used as subjects or objects in sentences.

• Onun dönüşünü bekliyorum. – “I’m waiting for him/her to return.”
• Güneşin batışını seyrediyorum. – “I’m watching the sunset.”

7. Turning Simple Turkish Sentence Structures into Complex Ones

Now that the theory part is over, I’m sure everything will fall into place in this section. I’m about to give you plenty of examples to study and practice with.

I’ll start with a simple Turkish sentence structure and keep adding to it. 

• Okula gideceğim. (“I will go to school.”)
• Yarın okula gideceğim. (“I will go to school tomorrow.”)
• Yarın saat yedide okula gideceğim. (“I will go to school at seven tomorrow.”) 
• Yarın saat yedide kardeşimle okula gideceğim. (“I will go to school with my sibling at seven tomorrow.”)
• Yarın saat yedide kardeşimle yürüyerek okula gideceğim. (“I will go to school by foot with my sibling at seven tomorrow.”)
•  Yarın saat yedide kardeşimle yürüyerek okula mı gideceğim? (“Will I go to school by foot with my sibling at seven tomorrow?”)
• Yarın saat yedide kardeşimle yürüyerek nereye gideceğim? (“Where will I go by foot with my sibling at seven tomorrow?”) 
• Yarın saat yedide yürüyerek kimle okula gideceğim? (“With whom will I go to school by foot at seven tomorrow?”)

• Kahve içtim. (“I drank coffee.”) 
• Bir fincan kahve içtim. (“I drank a cup of coffee.”) 
• Bir fincan Türk kahvesi içtim. (“I drank a cup of Turkish coffee.”) 
• Bir fincan şekersiz Türk kahvesi içtim. (“I drank a cup of Turkish coffee with no sugar.”)
• Arkadaşımla bir fincan şekersiz Türk kahvesi içtim. (“I drank a cup of Turkish coffee with no sugar with my friend.”) 
• Bu sabah arkadaşımla bir fincan şekersiz Türk kahvesi içtim. (“This morning,I drank a cup of Turkish coffee with no sugar with my friend.”) 
• Bu sabah bir kafede arkadaşımla bir fincan şekersiz Türk kahvesi içtim. (“This morning, I drank a cup of Turkish coffee with no sugar at a cafe with my friend.”) 
• Bu sabah bir kafede arkadaşımla bir fincan şekersiz Türk kahvesi mi içtim? (“Did I drink a cup of Turkish coffee with no sugar at a cafe with my friend?”) 
• Bu sabah arkadaşımla nerede bir fincan şekersiz Türk kahvesi içtim? (“Where did I drink a cup of Turkish coffee with no sugar with my friend?”)

• Onun dönüşünü kutladık. (“We celebrated his/her return.”) 
• Dün gece onun dönüşünü kutladık. (“Last night, we celebrated his/her return.”) 
• Dün gece bir restoranda onun dönüşünü kutladık. (“Last night, we celebrated his/her return at a restaurant.”) 
• Dün gece bir restoranda arkadaşlarımızla onun dönüşünü kutladık. (“Last night, we celebrated his/her return at a restaurant with our friends.”) 
• Dün gece bir restoranda arkadaşlarımızla onun dönüşünü coşkuyla kutladık. (“Last night, we celebrated his/her return with joy with our friends at a restaurant.”) 
• Dün gece bir restoranda arkadaşlarımızla onun dönüşünü coşkuyla mı kutladık? (“Did we celebrate his/her return with joy with our friends at a restaurant last night?”) 
• Dün gece bir restoranda arkadaşlarımızla neyi coşkuyla kutladık? (“What did we celebrate with joy with our friends at a restaurant last night?”)

8. The Journey isn’t Over Yet!

Do you feel better about Turkish word order and sentence structure now, after seeing how flexible they are compared to English? Do you think the journey ends here with this article? 

Of course not! 

Now it’s time for you to practice making more complex sentences. I highly recommend that you visit TurkishClass101.com to use our free resources as well as our Premium PLUS service, MyTeacher, upon upgrading.  

Please note that your feedback about your experience with TurkishClass101 will be greatly appreciated, as always.

Happy learning!

Time is a significant part of our lives. Whether you’re a tourist, a non-native student, a businessman/businesswoman, or a resident in Turkey, you’ll need to talk about time in Turkish at some point. This is inevitable because our entire life revolves around time.

Table of Contents

1. Time Format Used in Turkey
2. How to Ask the Time in Turkish
3. Time Past the Hour
4. Time Half Past the Hour
5. Time to the Hour
6. More Time-Related Words
7. Time Proverbs and Sayings about Time in Turkish
8. Conclusion: How TurkishClass101 Can Help You Master Turkish

1. Time Format Used in Turkey

You need to learn about the time format used in Turkey before learning how to say “What time is it?” in Turkish, don’t you? 

Actually, Turkey uses both the twelve-hour clock and the twenty-four-hour clock (military time). In daily life, when having informal conversations, people use the twelve-hour clock. However, the following words are added to clarify whether the mentioned time is a.m. or p.m. in Turkish:

• Sabah – “Morning”
• Öğleden sonra – “Afternoon”
• Akşam – “Evening”
• Gece – “Night”

Later, after we explain how to say “What time is it?” in Turkish, we’ll give you some examples of how exactly these words are used in context.

Turkey uses the twenty-four-hour clock system as well. However, it’s mostly used by airlines, transportation companies, press, and the media. In other words, this format is typically preferred in formal situations.

2. How to Ask the Time in Turkish

You definitely need to know how to ask about time in Turkish when:

–       using any means of transportation

–       traveling

–       you have a business meeting

–       you have a class or an exam

–       you’re in a race or any other kind of sports activity

–       you have a reservation or an appointment in Turkey

Of course, there may also be other cases where you need to ask “What is the time?” in Turkish.

Are you ready to ask the time in the Turkish language? If yes, let’s start!

• Saat – “Hour” or “Clock”
• Kaç – “How many?”
• Saat kaç? – “What time is it?” (Informal way of asking)
• Saatiniz kaç? – “What time is it?” (Formal way of asking)
• Afedersiniz saat kaç acaba? – “Excuse me; I wonder what time it is.” (Formal and more polite)

Undoubtedly, you also need to know the numbers to be able to tell the time in Turkish. Once you’ve gone over our number resource, check out this quick breakdown of how telling time in Turkish works:

• Saat dört.      – “It is four o’clock.”
• Saat dokuz.   – “It is nine o’clock.”
• Saat on bir.  – “It is eleven o’clock.”

Now, let’s try to use the words mentioned above to refer to a.m. and p.m. in Turkish:

• Sabah beş – “Five a.m.” (Five in the morning)
• Öğleden sonra iki – “Two p.m.” (Two in the afternoon)
• Akşam yedi – “Seven p.m.” (Seven in the evening)
• Gece iki – “Two a.m.” (Two in the morning—in Turkish, it’s two at night)

For better understanding, here are some complete sentences using these words:

• Sabah beşten beri ayaktayım. – “I’ve been up since five a.m. (five in the morning).”
• Öğleden sonra ikide gideceğim. – “I will go at two p.m. (two in the afternoon.”
• Eşim akşam yedide gelecek. – “My husband will come at seven p.m. (seven in the evening).”
• Gece ikide yattım. – “I went to bed at two a.m. (two in the morning).”

3. Time Past the Hour

When you want to talk about the time past the hour, such as “five past nine,” you say the hour first, followed by a suffix.

–   If the hour ends with a vowel, then it takes a buffer, -y, then a suffix, either -ı or -i.

–   If the hour ends with a consonant, then it takes one of the following suffixes based on the Turkish vowel harmony rules:

-i, -ı, -u, or -ü.

Then you can add the minutes followed by the word “past.” Unlike English, in Turkish, the past form of the verb “to pass” isn’t used; the present continuous form of the verb is used.

Here are some examples to help this make more sense:

• Saat onu beş geçiyor. – “It’s five past ten.” (suffix -u is used)
• Saat yediyi yirmi geçiyor. – “It’s twenty past seven.” (buffer -y and suffix -i are used)
• Geçmek – “To pass”
• Geçiyor – “Passing”

1- Quarter past

When you want to say “quarter past,” the same rules apply, except that çeyrek (“quarter”) is used where the minutes are placed. Here are a couple of examples:

• Saat onbiri çeyrek geçiyor.  – “It’s a quarter past eleven.” (suffix -i is used)
• Saat altıyı çeyrek geçiyor.     – “It’s a quarter past six.” (buffer -y and suffix -ı are used)

4. Time Half Past the Hour

Saying “half past the hour” in Turkish is as simple as saying the whole hour because you don’t need to worry about a buffer or a suffix. You just need to add the word for “half,” after saying the hour. This is how to say it:

• Saat iki buçuk. – “It’s half past two.”
• Saat on buçuk. – “It’s half past ten.”
• Buçuk – “Half”

However, there’s one more thing about “half past the hour” you need to know. If you want to say “half past twelve,” then there’s one more way of expressing it in Turkish, which is more common than the way mentioned above.

• Saat yarım. – “It’s half past twelve.”
• Yarım – “Half”

5. Time to the Hour

To tell the time to the hour, the hour comes first, followed by:

• The buffer, -y, then a suffix, either -e or -a, if the hour ends with a vowel.
• A suffix, either -e or -a, if the hour ends with a consonant.

Then add the minute and the word that corresponds to “to.”

• Saat yediye on var. – “It’s ten to seven.” (buffer -y and suffix -e are used)
• Saat dokuza beş var. – “It’s five to nine.” (suffix -a is used)
• Var – “There is/there are” (used for “to”)

1- Quarter to

When you want to say “quarter to,” the above rules apply, except that çeyrek (“quarter”) is used where the minutes are placed. Here are a couple of examples for you:

• Saat on ikiye çeyrek var. – “It’s a quarter to twelve.” (buffer -y and suffix -e are used)
• Saat üçe çeyrek var. – “It’s a quarter to three.” (suffix -e is used)

6. More Time-Related Words

Now that we’ve covered how to tell time in Turkish, let’s go over other words related to time in the Turkish language.

• Zaman/vakit – “Time”
• Dakika – “Minute”
• Saniye – “Second”
• Öğlen – “Noon”
• Gece yarısı – “Midnight”
• Şimdi – “Now”
• Bugün – “Today”
• Dün – “Yesterday”
• Yarın – “Tomorrow”
• Gün – “Day”
• Hafta – “Week”
• Ay – “Month”
• Yıl – “Year”
• Asır/yüzyıl – “Century”
• Önce – “Before” / “Ago”
• Sonra – “After”
• Hemen şimdi – “Right now”
• Şu an/şu anda – “Currently”
• Aynı zamanda – “At the same time”
• Mümkün olan en kısa zamanda – “As soon as possible”
• Yakında – “Soon”
• Uzun zamandır – “For a long time”
• Birazdan – “In a little while”

Let’s use some of these time-related words in sentences:

• O, beş dakika önce buradaydı. – “She/he was here five minutes ago.”
• Toplantıdan önce kahve içtim. – “I drank coffee before the meeting.”
• Dersten sonra konsere gideceğim. – “I will go to the concert after the class.”
• Bugün okula gitmeyeceğim. – “I won’t go to school today.”
• Bu yıl İtalya’ya gideceğim. – “I will go to Italy this year.”
• Şu an çalışmıyorum. – “Currently, I am not working.”
• Yakında orada olacağım. – “I will be there soon.”
• Onu hemen şimdi arıyorum. – “I am calling her/him right now.”
• Seni uzun zamandır görmedim. – “I haven’t seen you for a long time.”
• Mümkün olan en kısa zamanda geleceğim. – “I will come as soon as possible.”

Months and days are also related to time. However, we won’t cover them in this article. You can learn the Turkish words for them by reading our article named How to Read Dates.

You can also check our dictionary if you need to look up other words.

7. Time Proverbs and Sayings about Time in Turkish

Like all other languages, there are proverbs and sayings about time in Turkish as well. You have the answer to the question “How do you say what time is it in Turkish?”, so now it’s time to meet these commonly used Turkish time expressions:

• Vakit nakittir. – “Time is money.” (It means that wasting time or delaying something costs money.)
• Zaman uçup gider. – “Time flies.” (It means time passes amazingly quickly.)
• Zaman herşeyin ilacıdır. – “Time heals all wounds.” (It means that as the time passes, disappointments and heartaches go away gradually.)
• Zaman geçmek bilmiyor. – “Time hangs heavy on hands.” (It means that time seems to pass slowly.)
• Nefes alacak zamanım yok. – “I don’t have time to catch my breath.” (It means “I am very busy.”)
• Başımı kaşıyacak vaktim yok. – “I don’t have time to catch my breath.” (It also means “I am very 
• busy.” Both this expression and the one above can be used interchangeably.)

Which of these time expressions in Turkish is your favorite, and why? 

8. Conclusion: How TurkishClass101 Can Help You Master Turkish

As you can see, it’s not that complicated to learn to say “What is the time?” in Turkish or to answer the question yourself.  As long as you learn the rules explained above, you can easily tell the time in Turkish. Of course, practicing as much as possible will facilitate the learning process for you.

We think learning about time for Turkish beginners is easy now!  Do you know why? Please check out our website and see for yourself how simple the learning process can be with TurkishClass101! 

But before you go, let us know in the comments how you feel about telling time in Turkish. More comfortable, or is there still something you’re having a hard time with? We look forward to hearing from you!