Turkish Language - İsım - Nouns

Words which express both animate and inanimate objects, feelings, thoughts and notions are called Nouns: kedi - cat, duvar - wall, su - water, duygu - feeling, düşünce - thought.
According to what is expressed, nouns are divided into three types.
I. According to Meaning:
(1) Proper Nouns (Names)
(2) Common Nouns (things)

I. Özel İsimler - Real Names

Single objects which exist and are named in the world.
Londra - London, Kibris - Cyprus, Alsancak - a area of Izmir, Mehmet - a person's name, Karadeniz - Black Sea
Common Nouns - Writing Conventions
Proper nouns are written with a capital letter both at the beginning and within a sentence. Structural suffixes, plural -ler, lar (and the other general suffixes -li, -siz, -ci, -gil, -cik, -ler) are not written separately from their noun.
Kibrislı - Cypyiot, Ergunsuz - without Ergun (a man's name), Galatasaraycı - a supporter of Galatasaray FC., Mehmetgil - the family of Mehmet, Ayşecik - little Ayşe, Kırk Haramlar - the Forty Thieves
Proper Nouns which end in hard consonants (p, ç, t, k) retain their spelling when adding suffixes. The suffixes are always used with an apostrophe in written Turkish. However in spoken Turkish they follow Consonant Softening and Vowel Harmony Rules.
As Written - As Spoken:
Mehtap'ın - Mehtabın, Murat'ı - Muradı, Alsancak'a - Alsancağa, Satranç - Satranca

Proper Name Type Nouns

(1) First Names and Surnames of Persons
Ergun Kırkağçlı, Mehmet Buldanli, Ayşe Sarıkurt
(2) Country, Nation and State names:
İngiltere, Türkiye, İspanya, Avrupa, Teksas, İngiliz, Alman, Fransız.
(3) Newspaper, Magazine and Names of Books
Sabah, Yeni Asır, Bilim Çocuk, Çalı Kuşu, Erkekçe.
(4) Mountain, sea, river, hill, plain, ness, etc. geographical names
Toros Dağları, Kavaklı Dere, Çınarlı Tepe, İzmir Boğazı, Mağusa Körfezi, Karaburun.
(5) Institution, association, school, bank, syndicate, employer organization; etc. names
Türk Hava Kurumu, Halk Sanatları Derneği, Dört Eylül İkokullu, Ziraat Bankası, Kıbrıs Türk Öğretmenler Sendikası, Orman Bakanlığı.
(6) Heavenly bodies, planets, stars names
Ay, Güneş, Dünya, Venüs, Merkür, Samanyolu, Büyük Ayı.
(7) Language and Religious names ve din isimleri:
İngilizce, Türkçe, Fransızca, Almanca, Rusça, Hıristiyanlık, Müslümanlık, Protestanlık.
(8) Street, road, district, city, town names
Yalın Sokak, Uzun Yol Caddesi, Atatürk Bulvarı, Basmane Meydanı, Bursa, İmir.
(9) Names of objects
Fabrika - factory, duvar - wall, kalem - pen, köpek - dog, insan - person, çatı - roof, su - water, pencere - window...

II. Common Nouns

(1) Concrete Nouns - (Somut isim - Substantial Nouns)
(2) Abstract Nouns (Insubstantial Nouns - Soyut isim)

(1) - Concrete Nouns
Concrete nouns are those that you can see, hear, smell and touch or taste.
ağaç - tree, lezzet - flavour, koku - scent, biber - pepper, hava - air, boğaz - throat, ışık - light, yağmur - rain , yel - wind, sıcaklık - heat

(2) - Abstract Nouns
Abstract nouns are those that we cannot realize with our five senses. We realize these nouns from feeling, thought and emotion.
arkadaşlık - friendship, zenginlik - wealth, düşünce - thought, güzellik - beauty, saygılık - esteem, utanma - embarrassment, etki - effect, aldatma - deceit.....

III. Nouns according to Number

(1) Singular Nouns - (Tekil isimler)
(2) Plural Nouns - (Çoğul isimler)
(3) Collective Nouns - (Topluluk ismi)

(1) - Single Nouns
Noun form used for a single object.
okul - school, bulut - cloud, lise - high - school, iskemle - chair, gazete - newspaper, kaya - rock, hafta - week...

(2) - Plural Nouns
Noun form used for two or more items of an object. The plural suffix is -ler or -lar which is added to the root word according to Vowel harmony Rules.
okullar - school, bulutlar - clouds, liseler - high - schools, iskemleler - chairs, gazeteler - newspapers, kayalar - rocks, haftalar - weeks...
Besides making an object plural there are changes in meaning that the addition of the Plural suffix may indicate, these include:.

Other indicated meanings of the Plural Suffix

(a) Exaggeration: Çocuk ateşler içinde yanıyordu.
- The child was in a high fever.
(b) Uniqueness: İkisi de okulun kapısında annelerini bekliyorlardı.
- Both of then were waiting for their mothers at the school gate.
(c) Approximation: Sizi arayan 10 yaşlarında bir çocuktu.
- There as a child aged about 10 looking for you.
(d) General Family Encompass: Akşama Fatmalar bize gelecek.
- The Fatma family are visiting us this evening.
(e) Showing Esteem: Öğretmen Hanımlar, içeride oturuyorlar.
- The lady teachers are sitting inside.
(f) Similarity: Mustafa Kemaller tükenmez.
- The followers of Mustafa Kemal will never pass on.

(3) Collective Nouns
Collective nouns signify a collection of similar nouns.
Düzine - dozen, aile - family, orman - forest, takım - set, ekip - team, ordu - army, grup - group, yığın - heap, okul - school, sene - year...

Collective nouns can also be plural.
takımlar - sets, ekipler - teams, ormanlar - forests, sürüler - herds, flocks...

Noun Structures

There are three types of noun structures:
(1) Simple Nouns
(2) Derived Nouns
(3) Compound Nouns

(1) - Simple Nouns
Simple nouns are in their root form, without the addition of suffixes or without compounding with another noun.
bardak - tumbler, drinking glass, çay - tea, araba - car, bahçe - garden. Simple nouns are un-suffixed nouns (although they may be plural) in their root form and are not part of a compound noun
adam - man, adamlar - men, balta - axe, baltalar - axes, cepler - pockets, eki - effect, etkiler - effects...

(2) - Derived Nouns
Nouns which take a suffix of structure to form a new noun with a new or modified meaning.
İzmirli - citizen of Izmir - root - İzmir
dostluk - friendship - root - dost
sütçü - milkman - root - süt
Almanca - German Language - root - Alman
vatandaş - countryman - root - vatan
işçi - worker - root - iş

(3) - Compound Nouns
Compound nouns are those made up of two or more nouns (written contiguously) strung together which may take on a new meaning. As different word make up these compounds the Vowel harmony Rules are not applicable to them.
Anayol - main road - ana + yol (main + road)
başöğretmen - head-teacher
havagazı - natural-gas
kabakulak - thick-eared, eavesdropper
hanımeli - honeysuckle...

Diminished Nouns - (Nouns Reduced in Meaning)

Words which take the reducing suffixes -cik, -cık, -ceğiz, -cağız, -cek, -cak, -ciğim show intimacy (sevgi), pity (acıma), reduction (küçültme), non-importance (azımsama) and joking (alay gibi).
babacığım - daddy - [Intimate, Loving]
kedicik - pussy - [Reduction, Niceness]
adamcağız - "poor old chap" - [Pity]
büyücek - biggish - (from büyük) - [Reduction and Approximation, (sort of..)]
bir milyon liracık - one million lira.. - [Shows non-importance]
şoförcük - driver??!! - [Joke]
Some words ending in -cik are words in their own right and are NOT reduced nouns.
bademcik - tonsil
gelincik - poppy, weasel
arpacık - stye on the eye...

Nouns of Condition

Nouns of Condition can be the noun itself in its Simple Form.
Also it can be suffixed with -i (the Object Condition)
Suffixed with -e (the Movement Towards Condition)
Suffixed with -de (the Static Condition)
Suffixed with -den (the Movement Away from Condition)
All the above suffixes are subject to Vowel Harmony Rules and Consonant Change Rules

In Turkish these Noun Conditions are called:
İsim yalın hali - Noun Simple Condition - (in Classical Terms - Nominative Case)
İsim i-Hali - Noun -i Condition - (Accusative case)
İsim e-hali - Noun -e Condition - (Dative case)
İsim de-hali - Noun -de Condition - (Locative case)
İsim den-hali - Noun -den Condition - (Ablative case)

The Five Conditions of the Noun.

(1) - Noun yalın hali - (Signifies the subject noun, this form does not take any suffixes. "the..")
göz - eye, the eye, gözler - eyes, the eyes, elma - apple, the apple, elmalar - apples, the apples, tos - dust, yıl - year, fırça - brush, toprak - earth, ziraat - agriculture, tekerlek - wheel, tekerlekler - wheels, denk - bale, masa - table, Ahmet - Mr. Ahmet...

(2) - Noun -e hali - (signifies Movement To.. or Towards.. to the Noun itself - "to.., towards..")
This suffix has two forms according to Vowel Harmony Rules -e or -a, is added to the root word to produce the e-hali condition.
göze - to the eye, gözlere - to the eyes, elmaya - to the apple, elmalara - to the apples, tosa - to the dust, yıla - to the year, fırçaya - to the brush, toprağa - to the earth, ziraata - to the agriculture, tekerleğe - to the wheel, tekerleklere - to the wheels, denge - to the bale, masaya - to the table, Ahmet'e - to the Mr. Ahmet...

(3) - Noun -i hali - (signifies the Direct object - "the" - in English)
This suffix has four forms according to vowel harmony rules, (- i, -ı, -u, -ü) is added to the root word to produce the i-hali condition.
elmayı - the apple, elmaları - the apples, okulu - the school, okulları - the schools, üzümü - the grape, üzümleri - the grapes, gözü - the eye, gözleri - the eyes, kitabı - the book, kitapları - the books , ağacı - the tree, ağaçları - the trees, derdi - the worry, dertleri - the worries, rengi - the color, renkleri - the colours, Ahmet'i - Mr. Ahmet, Ahmet'leri - the Ahmet family

• (A) When adding this suffix to a root words which end in a vowel buffer letter -y- is used to produce -ye or -ya in order to keep two vowels apart.
• (B) Common Noun Roots which end in the hard consonants (p, ç, t, k , s, ş, h, f) change this consonant to its soft form (b, c, d, ğ) when adding the e-hali suffix , -e or -a
• C) Proper Noun Roots retain the hard consonant endings (p, ç, t, k , s, ş, h, f) in writing, as the e-hali suffix uses a apostrophe. (Mehmet = Mehmet'e as written but spoken = Mehmede)
• (D) If a noun end in -nk as in denk - bale, renk - colour and ahenk - harmony the the final -k softens to letter -g (not -ğ) when adding a vowel suffix - thus - dengi, rengi, ahengi. This is because it would be impossible to pronounce these words if the normal change had been to - "renği, denği etc.."

(4) - Noun -de hali - (signifies a Static Condition of the noun - "in, on at..")
The suffix -de or -da is added to the root, according to vowel harmony rules. If the last letter of the noun is a hard consonant (p, ç, t, k , s, ş, h, f ) - then the suffix takes it own hard form -te or -ta.
elmada - in the apple, elmalarda - in the apples, okulda - at the school, okullarda - at the schools, üzümde - on the grape, üzümlerde - on the grapes, gözde - in the eye, gözlerde - in the eyes, kitapta - in the book, kitaplarda - in the books , ağaçta - in the tree, ağaçlarda - in the trees, dertte - in the worry, dertlerde - in the worries, renkte - in the color, renklerde - in the colours, Ahmet'te - on Mr. Ahmet, Ahmet'lerde - in the Ahmet family, sabahta - in the morning, sabahlarda - from the mornings
If the last letter of the noun is a hard consonant (p, ç, t, k, s, ş, h, f) - then the suffix takes it own hard form -te or -ta

(5) - Noun -den hali - (signifies a Movement Away from the noun - "from, via..")
The suffix -den or -dan is added to the root, according to vowel harmony rules. If the last letter of the noun is a hard consonant (p, ç, t, k , s, ş, h, f ) - then the suffix takes it own hard form -ten or -tan.
elmadan - from the apple, elmalardan - from the apples, okuldan - from the school, okullardan - from the schools, üzümden - from the grape, üzümlerden - from the grapes, gözden - from the eye, gözlerden - from the eyes, kitaptan - from the book, kitaplardan - from the books , ağaçtan - from the tree, ağaçlardan - from the trees, dertten - from the worry, dertlerden - from the worries, renkten - from the color, renklerden - from the colours, Ahmet'ten - from Mr. Ahmet, Ahmet'lerden - from the Ahmet family, sabahtan - from the morning, sabahlardan - from the mornings, İzmir'den - from Izmir, via Izmir