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.
Vowel Harmony
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?
| Turkish Language Guide |
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