Adjectives
A Turkish adjective goes before the noun and never changes: no gender, no plural, no case. All the endings go on the noun at the end of the phrase.
Before the noun, invariable
| Turkish | gloss |
|---|---|
| büyük ev | a / the big house |
| büyük evler | big houses |
| büyük evlerde | in big houses |
| güzel bir gün | a beautiful day (adjective, then bir) |
| eski bir İstanbul evi | an old Istanbul house |
As the predicate: just the copula
Ev büyük. — "The house is big." · Hava soğuk. — "It's cold." Yorgunum. — "I'm tired." · Çok güzelsin. — "You're very beautiful."
See Present tense for the copula endings and Negation for değil.
Adjectives as nouns, and as adverbs
Any adjective can stand alone as a noun and take endings: büyükler "the grown-ups", kırmızıyı "the red one" (object). Many double as adverbs with no change: iyi konuşuyor "she speaks well", hızlı gidiyor "he drives fast". -ce / -ca makes manner adverbs: yavaşça slowly, sessizce quietly.
Degree
| word | gloss |
|---|---|
| çok | very, a lot — çok güzel |
| pek | very (mostly with a negative) — pek iyi değil "not very good" |
| oldukça | quite, rather |
| biraz | a bit — biraz pahalı |
| fazla | too — fazla tatlı "too sweet" |
Comparison
| pattern | example | |
|---|---|---|
| more | X**-den** (daha) adj | Ali Ayşe'den daha uzun. — Ali is taller than Ayşe. |
| most | en adj | en büyük şehir — the biggest city |
| as … as | X kadar adj | Ali kadar uzun — as tall as Ali |
| less | X-den daha az adj | daha az pahalı — less expensive |
"Than" is the ablative: Ayşe'den "from Ayşe". Daha "more" can be left out: Ali Ayşe'den uzun says the same.
Intensive reduplication
The first syllable is copied with a closing m, p, r or s to mean "completely":
| beyaz white → bembeyaz | kara black → kapkara | yeşil green → yemyeşil |
| sarı yellow → sapsarı | mavi blue → masmavi | temiz clean → tertemiz |
| yeni new → yepyeni |
Which consonant goes with which word has to be learned word by word.
Making adjectives and nouns: -li, -siz, -ci
Three suffixes, all in harmony, build hundreds of words:
| suffix | meaning | examples |
|---|---|---|
| -li | with, having; from (a place) | tuzlu salty, şekerli sweetened, evli married, İstanbullu from Istanbul |
| -siz | without | tuzsuz unsalted, şekersiz sugar-free, evsiz homeless, işsiz unemployed |
| -ci | a person who deals with it (a noun) | kitapçı bookseller, gazeteci journalist, sütçü milkman, yalancı liar |
-ci turns into -çi after a voiceless consonant, as -de turns into -te: kitapçı, balıkçı fisherman. Kahveci is a coffee-house keeper; Şekersiz, lütfen is how to order your coffee without sugar.
Against Korean, Japanese and French
Korean and Japanese adjectives are verbs that conjugate; Turkish adjectives are closer to nouns, needing the copula to be predicates. For a French reader the change is position and agreement both: always before, never agreeing — de grandes maisons is just büyük evler. Comparison with a "than" case matches Korean 보다 and Japanese より, both of which follow the thing compared, as -den does.
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