Language/Turkish/Grammar/Adjectives

Today, we're going to talk about adjectives and how to use them in Turkish.

What are Adjectives?

Adjectives are words that describe or modify nouns, and they come before the noun in Turkish. Unlike in English, where we usually use adjectives after the noun, Turkish adjectives go before the noun they describe.

For example, let's look at the sentence "the red apple" in English. In Turkish, this would be "kırmızı elma," with "kırmızı" (meaning "red") coming before "elma" (meaning "apple").

Now, let's dive into some more specifics about using adjectives in Turkish:

Agreement with the noun

In Turkish, adjectives must agree with the noun they describe in terms of number (singular/plural) and possession (possessive/non-possessive). This means that if the noun is plural or possessive, the adjective should also be plural or possessive.

For example:

• "The big houses" would be "büyük evler" in Turkish, with "büyük" (meaning "big") taking the plural form to match "evler" (meaning "houses").
• "My beautiful country" would be "güzel ülkem" in Turkish, with "güzel" (meaning "beautiful") taking the possessive form to match "ülkem" (meaning "my country").

Adjective order

When there are multiple adjectives describing a noun in Turkish, they should follow a specific order. This order is: quantity/number, quality/opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin, material.

For example:

• "The three delicious Turkish kebabs" would be "üç lezzetli Türk kebabı" in Turkish, with "üç" (meaning "three") coming first, followed by "lezzetli" (meaning "delicious"), "Türk" (meaning "Turkish"), and "kebabı" (meaning "kebabs").

Comparison of adjectives

In Turkish, adjectives can be compared using the words "daha" (meaning "more") and "en" (meaning "most"). To make a comparison, add "daha" or "en" before the adjective.

For example:

• "The blue dress is more beautiful than the green dress" would be "Mavi elbise yeşil elbiseden daha güzel" in Turkish, with "daha güzel" (meaning "more beautiful") added before "güzel" (meaning "beautiful").

That's it for this beginner's lesson on Turkish adjectives! I hope this has been helpful for you as you begin to learn and practice using adjectives in Turkish. Remember to practice using them in context to really solidify your understanding, and don't be afraid to make mistakes - that's all part of the learning process!

Common Turkish Adjectives

ENGLISH	PRONUNCIATION ENGLISH	TURKISH
OPEN	ah chahk	AÇIK
TALL	ou zoun boy lou	UZUN BOYLU
YELLOW	sah ruh	SARI
BLUE	mah vih	MAVİ
CHEAP	ou jouz	UCUZ
DRUNK	sahr hoh sh	SARHOŞ
GOOD	ih eh	İYİ
BEAUTIFUL	gew zehl	GÜZEL
WHITE	bay ahz	BEYAZ
I AM TIRED	yohr gou noum	YORGUNUM
EXPENSIVE	pah hah luh	PAHALI
I AM SURE	eh mih nihm	EMİNİM
FULL	doh lou	DOLU
SLOW	yah vah sh	YAVAŞ
DIFFERENT	fahr klih	FARKLI
HARD	zohr	ZOR
EASY	kah lah ih	KOLAY
I AM HUNGRY	ah tchuhm	AÇIM
CLOSED	kah pah luh	KAPALI
I AM HAPPY	mou tlou youm	MUTLUYUM
COLD	soh ook	SOĞUK
BIG	bew ih ewk	BÜYÜK
HUGE	chohk bew ih ewk	ÇOK BÜYÜK
COST-FREE	ew djih reh tsihz	ÜCRETSİZ
IMPORTANT	er nehm lih	ÖNEMLİ
IMPOSSIBLE	ihm kahn suhz	İMKANSIZ
SMART	ah kuh luh	AKILLI
INTERNATIONAL	ou lous lah rah rah suh	ULUSLARARASI
YOUNG	gehn ch	GENÇ
FREE	boh shoum	BOŞUM
FAR	ou zahk	UZAK
SAME ...	ah ih nuh ...	AYNI ...
SAME THING	ah ih nuh shay ...	AYNI ŞEY
NATIONAL	ou loou sahl	ULUSAL
NECESSARY	geh reh klih	GEREKLİ
NORMAL	nohr mahl	NORMAL
NEW	yeh nih	YENİ
NEVER	hih ch	HIÇ
I AM BUSY	mehsh gou lewm	MEŞGULÜM
THE TELEPHONE IS BUSY	teh leh fohn mehsh goul	TELEFON MEŞGUL
OTHER	bah she kah	BAŞKA
SMALL	kew chewk	KÜÇÜK
DANGEROUS	tehH lih keh lih	TEHLİKELİ
NEAR	yah kuhn	YAKIN
NEAR OF THE HOTEL	oh teh lihn yah kuh nihn dah	OTELİN YAKININDA
BLACK	see ahH	SİYAH
HOT	suh jahk	SICAK
FAST	huhz luh	HIZLI
LATE	gehch	GEÇ
OLD	ehs kih	ESKİ
OLD (THINGS)	ehs kih (shay lehr)	ESKİ (ŞEYLER)
GREEN	yeh shihl	YEŞİL
RED	kuhr muh zuh	KIRMIZI