General Introduction to Turkish Grammar for Foreigners

There are some really good Turkish Dictionaries and Vocabulary on the internet and also one or two courses. But the offered lessons usually contain a fixed list and often combine only a few extensions at the same time.

I liked to have more flexibility and more practice opportunities, since the Turkish sentence often consists of a concatenation of several different endings (Example: ev-de-ydi-m => House -in-was-I = I was at home or gel-IYOR-sa-n => arrive-presentTime-if-you = if you arrive, then ...).

These endings have (usually/always?) a specific hierarchy or sequence in which they are used. Also, they cannot only be added one after the other, but almost always need to be adjusted depending on the preceding syllable/ending. This may involve:

• using a linking letter between endings
• the so-called Vowel Harmonies need to be taken into account
• or consonants need to be changed.

For some words the root of the word changes by adding a suffix. This does not really make it any easier to look up the vocabulary in a dictionary if you are not aware of it.

All of this is probably the reason why there are no good online translation for Turkish sentences. Also often Turkish can only be translated context-dependent ( güzel-im => beautiful I = I am beautiful or = my beautify one; yaz = summer or write now!). And quiet often a suffix is omitted when it is clear from the context, eg. for plural endings this is very often the case.

For this variety of suffixes and their combination I, in any case, need more exercises. And, if you like, you may join in. In the following chapters most of the important rules for the adaptation of the Turkish suffixes are shortly explained. With all exercises you can chose to view the general form of the suffixes to be displayed. To be able to read the form you will need to know:

• fixed components: written in lower-case
• optional components of suffix: listed in ()
• candidates to be exchanged: letter in upper-case

These pages are still under construction, therefore it is not complete yet and may contain errors. I would like to apologize for this. If you like to help, please send me a message via contact. And the more my head smoulders due to the different grammar, the greater my respect grows for those who have learned a language especially comming from other language families.

Thank you and hope you'll like my lessons!

 

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Major Vowel Harmony

For Minor Vowel Harmony the vowel of the prefix determines, whether an ι, u, i oder ü needs to be uses with the suffix.

     a ι     o u     i e     ö ü
      ↓       ↓       ↓       ↓
      ι        u       i       ü

 

Symbol in form: I

Example: suffix -(I)m (my ...)
balιm (my honey)
kιzιm (my girl)
notum (my notes)
evim (my house)

 

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Minor Vowel Harmony

For Minor Vowel Harmony the vowel of the prefix determines, whether an a or an e needs to be uses with the suffix.

     a ι o u     i e ö ü
        ↓           ↓
        a           e

 

Symbol in form: E

Example: suffix -DE (in/inside ...)
ev-de (in/inside the house) but oda-da (in/inside the room)

 

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Vowel Harmony and Aorist

The Aorist is a verb form used for habits and regular operations. If Minor Vowel Harmony, Major Vowel Harmony or no vowel harmony at all will be needed depends on the verb root:

• root ends with a vocal => no vocal will be added
• root ends with r or l or the root is polysyllabic => Major Vowel Harmony
• otherwise => Minor Vowel Harmony

 

Symbol in form: X or (X)

Example: suffix -(X)r (Aorist without negation)
de-mek    => de--r (he says)
sev-mek   => sev-er (he loves)
bil-mek    => bil-ir (he knows)
oyna-mak  => oyna--r (he plays)
düşün-mek => düşün-ür (he thinks)

 

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Linking Consonant

In Turkish two consecutive vowels occur only in foreign words. To avoid collision a linking consonant between two endings or between base and suffix is added if necessary. Some suffixes require a consonant even if the suffix itself does not begin with a vowel but they are added to a vowel. The most common linking consonant is y.

• Possessive suffix of the 3rd pers. => s
• with genitive ending => n
• others => y

Attention: When declaring a word for 3rd person a n must be added behind the possessive ending, regardless of whether or not the next ending starts with a vowel! Unfortunately, due to this distinction between "his/hers" and "yours" is difficult for those words not ending with a vowel because in most cases they are the same: ev-in-de (in your house) = ev-i-n-de (in his house).

 

Symbol in form: s, n, Y, y, N

Example:
çantaya (out of the bag)
çantasιna (out of his bag)
çantada (inside the bag)
çantasιnda (inside his bag)

 

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Changing First Consonants of Suffix

All endings beginning with c, d or g, need to change this consonant to ç, t or k, if a voiceless consonant is joined. So: Be careful with "hafiş and postkuçe" (in German: Haifisch and Postkutsche)!

     c    d    g
     ↓    ↓    ↓
     ç    t    k

 

Symbol in form: C D G

Example: Suffix -DE (in/at ...)
ev-de (at home) but otobüs-te (in the bus)

 

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Changing Consonants in Ending of Nouns

For many nouns ending on ç, k, p or t , this consonant becomes its voiced counterpart, if an extension beginning with a vowel is attached. Unfortunately there does not seem to exist a rule for which nouns these consonants change must be considered. Especially with monosyllabic words and words anding on t this rule often does not apply.

So: do not forget about the extra "ketchup"!

       k   e   t   ç   a   p
       ↓       ↓    ↓       ↓
     ğ/g     d    c      b

 

Expected syntax in word: K(nk=>ng) T Ç P

Example:
kitaP (book - nominative) => kitaba (dative)
renK (color - nominative) => renge (dative)
but
et (meat - nominative) => ete (dative)

 

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Exceptions

There are a number of words (mainly from the Arabic), in which the vowel harmony does not apply or the trunk changes when adding a suffix. These anomaly have not been considered yet.

Some examples:
saat (clock, time) => saatler ('a' according to vowel harmony, but 'e' needed)
su (water) => suyum (extra y)
hak (law) => hakka (double consonant)
resim (pircure) => res-mim (vowel is omitted)

 

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To Exercises

You may find the exercises by choosing one of this links or in the menu bar:

 

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