Prepositions
Turkish has no prepositions. Their work is shared between case endings glued to the noun and postpositions, small words that come after it. English in, on, at, to, from collapse into three endings; the rest are postpositions or location nouns.
The three place cases
| case | ending | English | examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| locative | -de / -da (-te / -ta) | in, on, at | evde at home, masada on the table, okulda at school, saat beşte at five |
| dative | -(y)e / -(y)a | to, towards, into | eve home, okula to school, Ankara'ya to Ankara |
| ablative | -den / -dan (-ten / -tan) | from, out of, through, than | evden from home, pencereden through the window, kitaptan from the book |
Harmony picks e or a; d → t after a voiceless consonant; y separates two vowels. One locative covers in, on and at — masada is "on the table" and "at the table" alike.
The dative also marks the indirect object: Ali'ye bir kitap verdim. — "I gave Ali a book."
Verbs that pick an unexpected case
| Turkish | case | English |
|---|---|---|
| otobüse binmek | dative | to get on the bus |
| otobüsten inmek | ablative | to get off the bus |
| bana bakmak | dative | to look at me |
| köpekten korkmak | ablative | to be afraid of the dog |
| sana yardım etmek | dative | to help you (aider quelqu'un) |
| Ali'yi beklemek | accusative | to wait for Ali |
Postpositions
| postposition | takes | example | gloss |
|---|---|---|---|
| için | nominative / genitive pronoun | senin için, ev için | for you, for the house |
| ile / -(y)le | nominative | arkadaşımla, otobüsle, kalemle | with my friend, by bus, with a pen |
| gibi | nominative / genitive pronoun | senin gibi, kar gibi | like you, like snow |
| kadar | nominative / dative | Ali kadar, akşama kadar | as much as Ali, until evening |
| göre | dative | bana göre | in my opinion, according to me |
| sonra / önce | ablative | yemekten sonra, dersten önce | after the meal, before class |
| beri | ablative | 2020'den beri | since 2020 |
| doğru | dative | denize doğru | towards the sea |
İle is also "and" between nouns: Ali ile Ayşe "Ali and Ayşe". As an ending it drops its i and harmonises: arabayla, otobüsle.
Location nouns: on top of, under, in front of
Exact positions are nouns — üst top, alt bottom, ön front, arka back, iç inside, yan side, ara space between — with the possessive and a case:
| Turkish | gloss |
|---|---|
| masanın üstünde | on (top of) the table |
| masanın altında | under the table |
| evin önünde | in front of the house |
| kapının arkasında | behind the door |
| çantanın içinde | inside the bag |
| benim yanımda | next to me, with me |
| masanın altına koydum | I put it under the table (dative = motion) |
The n in üst-ü-n-de is the buffer from Plurals. Changing -de to -e or -den turns "under" into "to under" or "from under".
Against Hindi, Japanese and Korean
Hindi is the closest on the site: it too has postpositions after the noun, and से se covers "from", "with (an instrument)" and "than" much as -den and -le do. Japanese で / に / から and Korean 에서 / 에 / 에서·부터 split "at / to / from" the same three ways, though Japanese and Korean split location again by whether something happens there (で, 에서) or just is there (に, 에), which Turkish does not.
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