In Turkish words are changed by fixing other words on to them. These other little important words show motion towards, static location and motion from. These added words change their spelling according to set rules and they must follow the same vowel pattern (Vowel Harmony) as the word they are being affixed to - sometimes they also have a consonant change for ease of pronunciation.
Thus little words (suffixes) added to the stem of a verb may indicate its positive or negative form. Further suffixes are added for tense and person. Further meaning to verbs such as - may, might, can, can't, must, ought to are also supplied by an add-on to the original verb, thus producing a new word.
Nouns can be also suffixed with possessor and the motion or location words are then added.
There is no word for the (the Definite Article) and also there is no gender forms (no le or la as in French).
Describing words (Adjectives) precede their noun as in English and always remain in their basic form, no gender thus no agreement is necessary. The sentence form is S.O.V - Subject, Object, Verb.
A Turkish word starts with a short root (such as gel- come ). One or more suffixes are added to modify the root (geldik we came ). Turkish uses suffixes to convey it meaning whereas English generally uses small prepositions by, with, from, to. You can make whole sentences in Turkish out of one little word root and a lot of suffixes. - evimdeyim [ev-im-de-yim] - I am at my house, at home
Suffixes are formed according to Turkish vowel harmony, rules whereby most vowel sounds in a word are made either in the front of the mouth or the back, but not both. Details here - About Turkish Vowels
Suffixes are sometimes preceded by a "buffer letter" such as -y- or -n- or -s- for smooth pronunciation. Stress is usually on the last syllable of a word. See about Conversational Stress in Turkish.
Plural: -lar, -ler
Bankalar - banks
Oteller - hotels
To, Toward: -a, -e (or -ya, -ye after a vowel)
Bankaya - to the bank
Otele - to the hotel
From: -dan, -den
Bankadan - from the bank
Otelden - from the hotel
Possessive: -ın, -in, ( or -nın, or -nin after a vowel)
Bankanın - the bank's
Otelin - the hotel's
With: -lı, -li, -lu, -lü
Et - meat - becomes - etli - with meat
Süt - milk - becomes - sütlü - with milk, milky
Without: -sız,-siz,-suz, -süz
Et - meat - becomes - etsiz - without meat, meatless
Süt - milk - becomes - sütsüz - without milk
You may see -ı, -i, -u or -ü, -sı, -si, -su or -sü added to any noun. An ev is a house but the ev that Mehmet lives in is Mehmet'in evi - [Mehmet-of house-his].
Infinitive: -mak, -mek
Almak - to take or buy
Gitmek - to go
Simple present: -ar, -er, -ır, -ir, -ur, -ür
Alır - he/she/it takes or buys
Gider - he/she/it goes
Future: -acak, -ecek, -acağ-, -eceğ-
Alacak - he/she/it will take, buy
Gidecek - he/she/it will go
Simple past: -dı, -di, -du, -dü
Aldı - he/she/it took, bought
Gitti - he/she/it went
Continuous: -ıyor-, -iyor- (like English '-ing')
Alıyor - he/she/it is taking, buying
Gidiyor - he/she/it is going
Question: -mı, -mi, -mu, -mü
Alıyor mu? - Is he/she/it taking (it)?
Gidecek mi? - Will he/she/it go?
shirleyanntr of turkishliving forums has written this article on Turkish word order. We ask permission to repeat (albeit stylistically altered) it here on Manisa Turkish (a free website) for the interest of Turkish learners everywhere.
Most people whose first language is English find Turkish word order difficult. You know many words but trying to put them together to make sense is frustrating. This is really where grammar asserts itself, where knowing the tenses and suffixes and who or what goes where in a sentence is essential.
English word order is subject/verb/object (SVO) - I want a book
Turkish word order is subject/object/verb (SOV): - Ben kitap istiyorum. - A book want I
| 1.Subject | 2.Time | 3.Place | 4.Reason - Indirect Object/Direct Object | 5.Verb |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| who/what | when | where | for, to, by, why/who | how |
Many sentences will not be comprised of every component, for instance some might not need time or expression of time or place and expressions of place whilst other sentences might be more complicated and need more explanations of time, place etc. and also indirect object as well as the direct object.
For a Turkish sentence whatever it is you want to say put the verb at the end. Whether the verb is - walk, build, make, say bring, take, come, go etc. - it is still last in the sentence. The person or thing (Subject/pronoun) that's doing the action is always in the first place of a sentence.
in Turkish you can usually leave that out as its already on the end...BUT I think until you are really confident put the pronoun at the start - I, you, he, she, it, we, they. This is the frame for the sentence, into which time place etc. can be added.
Let us give these parts initials to remind ourselves of the basics that you can apply to most situations
S. subject T. time P. place O. object V. verb
Here are some scenarios.
Mehmet is walking to Bodrum on Saturday - Mehmet yürüyor. - "John is walking" this is the sentence frame - Mehmet Bodrum'a yürüyor (Lit: Mehmet Bodrum to is walking.)
Mehmet Cumatesi günü Bodrum'a yürüyor - Mehmet Saturday Bodrum to is walking S T P O V
Last year we stayed in Marmaris for two weeks - Biz kaldık - "we stayed" this is sentence frame
Biz Marmaris'te kaldık (Lit: We Marmaris in stayed.)
Biz gecen sene Marmaris'te kaldık - We, last year, Marmaris in, stayed. S T P O V
I will come to Turkey for two weeks in June. - Ben geleceğim - "I will come" this is the sentence frame
Ben Türkiye'ye geleceğim - I Turkey to will come.
Ben Haziran'da iki hafta için Türkiye'ye geleceğim - I June in two weeks for Türkey to will come. SPTOV - in this sentence you have a longer time expression 'for two weeks in June'.
Nadine is now at home reading a book - Nadine (she) okuyor Nadine is reading this is the sentence frame
Nadine şimdi evde kitap okuyor . S T P O V
Nadine- now- house in- book reading she is - Nadine/subject şimdi/time evde/place kitap/object okuyor/verb
Ali is at the moment eating food in the lokanta. - Ali yiyor "Ali is eating" is the sentence frame
Anli şu anda lokantada yemek yiyor - S T P O V - Ali now lokanta in food eating (he) is
Deniz and Jale watched a film last night in the cinema. - Deniz Jale ile dün gece sinemada film izlediler. S T P O V - Deniz Jale with last night cinema in film watched.
Here is a couple of more complicated sentences but with all the parts in including an indirect object in the shape of Deren's plumber.
Hüseyin was said to be angry in Ankara last month with the waiter who was smoking
Hüseyin kızmıştı - "Hüseyin was said to be angry" - this is the frame
Hüseyin gecen ay Ankara'da sigara içen garsona kızmıştı S T P O V
Hüseyin, last month Ankara in, cigarette who-was-smoking waiter was said to be angry
the object was the smoking waiter İÇ+EN garsonthe waiter who smoked
Last week Deren showed the plumber the leak in the bathroom.
Deren (she) gösterdi - "Deren showed" - this is the frame
Deren hanım, geçen hafta tesisatçıya banyoda olduğunu sızıntıyı gösterdi S T P I O V
Last week Miss Deren the-plumber-to in-the-bathroom leak showed. - the leak is the direct object, the plumber the indirect object. (Last week Deren showed the plumber the leak in the bathroom)
If you are making a statement rather than a sentence then you use the helping verb 'to be' on the ends of nouns, and the word order is still the same
Bugün burada hava çok güzel. - Today here at weather very nice is present
Bugün burada hava çok güzeldi. - Today here at weather very nice was past
(Biz) bugün iyi değiliz. - (Lit: Today good not are we.) - We are not well today
(Biz) gecen hafta hastaydık - (Lit: We last week ill were we.) - We were ill last week
The Subject always comes first followed by adjectives and nouns as indirect and direct objects, followed by the verb in the last position. The subject of the sentence is often the final suffix (unless the sentence is a question) as the personal pronoun (shown ain bracketa is often omitted):
(Ben,) İstanbul'a gidecegim - I'm going to Istanbul.
(Ben,) Halı almak istiyorum - I want to buy (take) a carpet
Now you can slap a lot of suffixes together and get Afyonkarahisarlılastıramadıklarımızdan mısınız?. It's actually a word, and also a complete sentence! But, it must be admitted, it was made up just to show off the agglutinative facility of Turkish. What does it mean? - Are you from among that group of people whom we attempted to make to resemble the citizens of Afyonkarahisar, but were unable to do so?
In Turkish words are changed by fixing other words on to them. These other little important words show motion towards, location and motion from.
These added words change their spelling according to set rules and they must follow the same vowel pattern (Vowel Harmony) as the word they are being affixed to - sometimes they also have a consonant change for ease of pronunciation.
Thus little words (suffixes) added to the stem of a verb may indicate its positive or negative form. Further suffixes are added for tense and person.
Further meaning to verbs such as may, might, can, can't are also supplied by an add-on to the original verb, thus producing a new word.
Nouns are also suffixed with possessor and the motion or location words are then added.
There is no word for the (the Definite Article) and also there is no gender forms (no le or la as in French).
Describing words (Adjectives) precede their noun as in English and always remain in their basic form, no gender thus no agreement is necessary.
The sentence form is SOV - Subject, Object, Verb.
Turkish is characterized by vowel harmony, consonant mutation and agglutination. Post positions are used instead of prepositions.
Thus suffixes added to the stem of the verb may indicate positive or negative forms of the passive, reflexive, causative, potential, subjunctive moods plus further additions for tense and person.
Nouns are also suffixed with possessor and aspect (movement toward, movement away suffixes etc.). Both the subject definite article and grammatical gender are lacking. Adjectives precede their noun and do not have to agree in number or case. The sentence form is S.O.V - Subject, Object Verb.
* You can easily spell the words phonetically.
* There are no irregular verbs.
* There is only one irregular noun. [su - water]
* There is no gender: He, she, it are represented by one single pronoun - namely "o"
* There is no distinction between adjectives and adverbs.