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Turkish is a language
of the Ural-Altaic
family. It's
quite logical,
with no gendersand
only a few
exceptional rules, but
its agglutinative structure
is so different from Indo-European
languages that speakers of those
languages may find its grammar a
challenge to learn at first.
(Agglutinative means
that words and sentences are made by
adding suffixes to a root-word.)
Suffixes
A Turkish word starts with a short
root (such as git-, 'go').
One or more suffixes are added
to modify the root (gitti, 's/he
went'). English uses only a few suffixes,
such as -'s for possessive, -s or -es for
plural, but Turkish has dozens of
suffixes.You can make whole sentences
in Turkish out of one little word
root and a lot of suffixes.
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. More...
Buffer Letters
Suffixes are sometimes preceded by
a 'buffer letter' such as 'y' or
'n' for smooth pronunciation.
Stress is usually on the last
syllable of a word.
Noun Suffixes
Plural: -lar, -ler
Bankalar, banks
Oteller, hotels
To, Toward: -a, -e (or -ya,
-ye)
Bankaya, to the bank
Otele, to the hotel
From: -dan, -den
Bankadan, from the bank
Otelden, from the hotel
Possessive: -ın, -in,
-nın, or -nin
Bankanın, the bank's
Otelin, the hotel's
With: -lı, -li, -lu, -lü
Et, meat; etli, with
meat
Süt, milk; sütlü,
with milk
Without: -sız,-siz,-suz,
-süz
Et, meat; etsiz, without
meat, meatless
Süt, milk; 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.
Verb Suffixes
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?
First Person Singular (I):-ım,
-im, -um, -üm
Alırım, I take
Second Person Singular (you-informal):
-sın, -sin, -sun, -sün
Alırsın, You take
Third Person Singular (he/she/it): (no
suffix)
Alır, he/she/it
takes
First Person Plural (we): -ız,
-iz, -uz,-üz
Alırız, we take
Second Person Plural (you-formal): -sınız,
-siniz, -sunuz,-sünüz
Alırsınız, You (plural)
take; or You (singular-formal) take
Third Person Plural (they):
-lar, -ler
Alırlar, They take.
Word Order
Nouns and adjectives usually come
first, followed by the verb. The subject
of the sentence is often the final
suffix (unless the sentence is a question):
İstanbul'a gideceğim,
I'm going to Istanbul.
Halı almak istiyorum,
I want to buy (take) a carpet (literally
'Carpet to buy want I')
The Fun Begins
Now you can slap a lot of suffixes
together and get Afyonkarahisarlılaştıramadıklarımızdan
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 were unable to make to resemble
the citizens of Afyonkarahisar?"
Yeah, right.
Well...are you?
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