The article “the” in Turkish - Belirtme Hali Eki

Unlike English, the article “the” does not come before the noun in Turkish but is rather appended to the noun as a suffix.

→ The suffix we add depends on the last letter of the noun.

Here is a table to map the “the” suffix to a noun.

→ if the last letter is a consonant.

→ If the last letter is a vowel.

📌 If the last letter is a vowel then “y” comes in between as a mediator between the two vowels. In Turkish two vowels do not come together back to back.

It is one of the golden rules of Turkish. Words that have two consecutive vowels are loanwords

Examples

Çay → Tea,

Çayı → the tea

Ev → House,

Evi → the house

Balkon → Balcony,

Balkonu → the balcony

Gül → Rose,

Gülü → the rose

Göl → Lake,

Gölü → the lake

Examples:

Araba → Car,

Arabayı → the car

Sebze → Vegetable,

Sebzeyi → the vegetable

Depo → Warehouse,

Depoyu → the warehouse

Kötü → Bad,

Kötüyü → the bad

Thanks for reading!

Written by

Abbas Abdelila

@abbasabdelila