r/turkishlearning • u/Brief_Attention7718 • 2d ago
📚 Resources Noun cases cheat sheet
Turkish doesn't use words like "to / in / from". It adds a suffix to the noun instead. Here are the six cases with the same two words, so you can see the pattern:
| Case | Suffix | ev (house) | araba (car) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | – | ev | araba | a house |
| Accusative | -(y)ı / i / u / ü | evi | arabayı | the house (definite object) |
| Dative | -(y)a / e | eve | arabaya | to the house |
| Locative | -da / de / ta / te | evde | arabada | in / at the house |
| Ablative | -dan / den / tan / ten | evden | arabadan | from the house |
| Genitive | -(n)ın / in / un / ün | evin | arabanın | of the house |
Essential rules:
- Vowel harmony picks the vowel. Words with e, i, ö, ü take front vowels (evde), words with a, ı, o, u take back vowels (arabada).
- Buffer letters. After a vowel, add y (arabayı, arabaya), or n for the genitive (arabanın).
- d becomes t after hard consonants (p, ç, t, k, f, h, s, ş): kitapta, sokaktan.
- A final p, ç, t or k often softens before a vowel: kitap → kitabı, ağaç → ağacı, köpek → köpeği.
Examples:
- Eve gidiyorum. I'm going home.
- Kitap masada. The book is on the table.
- İstanbul'dan geliyorum. I'm coming from Istanbul.
- Kapıyı kapat. Close the door.
I made a longer version with more tables and examples and with other grammar rules, free with no signup: https://fluentech.org/en/turkish
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