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Cases of Nouns in Turkish

There are six noun cases in Turkish. These are listed as follows :

1) Nominative Case 2) Genitive Case 3) Dative Case 4) Accusative Case 5) Ablative Case 6) Locative Case

Turkish nouns decline by taking case-endings, as in Latin since Turkish is classified as an agglunative language. These case-endings follows the vowel harmony.

NOMINATIVE CASE

There is no case-ending for this case. One may use the noun directly in this case.

(a) Nominative, as subject of a sentence or as complement of a verb meaning 'to be, to become' or the like: Kapı açıldı 'the door was opened'; Ben başkan olmayacağım 'I shall not become Prime Minister'.

(b) Vocative: Ahmet! Taksi!

(c) Indefinite accusative, i.e. as the undefined object of a verb: Gazete çıkarmak zor bir iş 'to publish newspapers is a hard job'; Bilet satıyorlar 'they are selling tickets'; Sigara içmez 'he does not smoke cigarettes'.

(d) It may stand for any case in suspended affixation, i.e. when one grammatical ending serves two or more parallel words: sıhhat ve afiyet-te 'in health and well-being'. One can put the case ending on both words- sıhhat-te ve afiyet-te -just as one can repeat the preposition in English- 'in health and in well-being' but this is less usual.

(e) Many adverbs of time are originally nouns in the absolute form, e.g. bugün 'today'.

GENITIVE CASE

The case ending used in this case is a fourfold following the vowel harmony. ( either -in, -ın, -un, -ün )

The genitive suffix shows that the substantive to which it is attached stands in a possessive or qualifying relationship to another substantive. Adamın evi. " The house of man" Evin duvarı. " The wall of house".

DATIVE CASE

The case ending used in this case is a twofold following the vowel harmony. ( either -e, -a )

(a) The indirect object of a verb: "mektubu Ali'ye gönderdim." ("I sent the letter to Ali"); "hizmetçiye bir palto vereceğiz" ("we are going to give the servant a coat"). It may translate the for English 'for' as in "hizmetçi-ye bir palto alacağız" ("we are going to buy a coat for the servant").

(b) Place whither: "Türkiye'ye döndüler" ("they returned to Turkey"); "yer-e düştü" ("it fell to the ground"); "şişeyi masa-ya koydu." ("he put the bottle on the table"); "sandalye-ye oturdum" ("I seated myself on the chair") (but the locative is used in "sandalye-de oturuyordum" ("I was seating on the chair")); "bir ormana gizlendiler" ("they hid in a forest").

(c) Purpose: kız, "cicek toplamay-a cıkıyor" ("the girl is going out to pick flowers"), "öğrenci sınava hazırlanıyor" ("the student is preparing for the examination").

(d) Price: "bunu kaç-a aldin?" ("for how much did you buy this?").

ACCUSATIVE CASE

The case ending used in this case is a fourfold following the vowel harmony. ( either -ı, -i, -u, -ü )

There is no definite article in Turkish, but definiteness of the object is implied when the accusative ending is used.

It marks the definite object of a verb, i.e. an object defined:

(a) By a demonstrative adjective: "bu gazete-yi çıkarmak zor bir iş" ("to publish this newspaper is a hard job").

(b) By a personal pronoun, suffixed or independent: ev-imiz-i or "bizim evi kiraladı" ("he has rented our house").

(c) By this nature, e.g. as a place-name, a personal name or title, a personal or demonstrative pronoun: "Adana'yı gezdik" ("we toured Adana"); "Hasan'ı hemen tanıdım." ("I recognized Hasan immediately"); "Profesör-ü selamladı" ("he greeted the Professor"); "siz-i ilgilendirmez" ("it does not concern you"); "bu-nu niçin yaptı" ("why have you done this?")

(d) In situations where English uses the definite article: "kitab-ı okumadım" ("I have not read the book".

(e) By being otherwise adequately defined, e.g. by a participle. The use of bir, the 'indefinite article', in such circumstances does not necessarily make the object indefinite. A descriptive adjective is not in itself sufficient to make an object definite; compare "bir mavi kumaş istiyor" ("she wants a blue material") with "mavi kumaşı seçti" ("she choose the blue one").

ABLATIVE CASE

The case ending used in this case is a twofold following the vowel harmony. ( either -den, -dan )

This case expresses point of departure:

(a) Place from which: "şehirden ayrıldı" ("he departed from the city"); "bu davranışı onu işin-den edecek" ("this behaviour will make him away from his job").

(b) Place through which: "pencere-den girdi" ("he entered by the window"); "hangi yol-dan gidilir?" ("by which road does one go?"); "sizi telefon-dan arıyorlar" ("you are wanted on the phone") ("they are seeking you through the phone"); "radyo-dan yayıldı" ("the news was broadcast")("was spread through the radio");

(c) The casual use is very frequent:"açlık-tan bitkin" ("exhausted from hunger"); "ne-den?" "why?" ("from what?"); "on-dan" ("for that reason").

(d) The second member of a comparison is put in the ablative:"Türkiye Lübnan'dan büyüktür" ("Turkey is bigger than Lebanon").

(e) The ablative denotes the material from which something is made: "naylon-dan yapılmış bir balık ağı" ("a fishing-net made of nylon").

(f) The partitive use: "komşular-dan biri" ("one of the neighbours"); "üyelerden birkaçı" ("several of the members").

(g) The ablative expresses price, but not synonymously with the dative: bu elmaları kaç-tan aldın?" ("at what price did you buy these apples?")

Notice that the consonant assimilation occures in this case when the noun ends with a hard consonant. The case-endings turn into "-ten, -tan".

LOCATIVE CASE

The case ending used in this case is a twofold following the vowel harmony. ( either -de, -da )

This expresses location, which may be:

(a) In place: "tiyatro-da" ("at the theatre"); "su-da" ("in the water"); "yer-de" ("on the ground"); "ben-de para yok" ("I have no money on me"); "masa-da bir vazo var" ("there is a vase on the table").

(b) In time: "beş mayıs-da" ("on 5 May"); "saat iki-de" ("at two oclock")

(c) In an abstract: "radyo-da bir konuşma var" ("there is talk on the radio"); "ihtiyarlık-ta" ("in old age"); "gitmek-te" ("in (the act of) going"). The locative is used with expressions denoting shape, size, colour, and age, where English idiom varies between 'of' and 'in': "yumurta şeklinde bir taş" ("a stone in the shape of an egg"); "yirmi yaşında" ("twenty years old") ("in the age of twenty"); "on metre" uzunluğunda bir ip 'a cord of ten metres'.

Notice that the consonant assimilation occures in this case when the noun ends with a hard consonant. The case-endings turn into "-te, -ta".