Turkish Adverbs

An adverb is a word (in some cases phrase) that modifies the meaning of a verb, adjective, or other adverbs. Turkish adverbs express manner, place, time etc. Turkish adverbs give the answer of when/ why/ where/ how or under what conditions in sentences. English adverbs are often formed by -ly suffix, whereas Turkish adverbs mostly by –CA.

Let’s first see what is an adverb with an English example.

“Really” intensifies the verb. It’s an adverb.

In many books, Turkish adverbs are categorized into four: adverbs of place, adverbs of quantity, adverbs of time, lastly adverbs of manner. But when you are learning a foreign language, you don’t need these categories.

Focus on the adverbs and their meanings. In this article, you’ll study the most popular Turkish adverbs that you must know to be able to talk Turkish. Let’s begin:

In Turkish, almost all adjectives can serve you as an adverb.

More commonly than English, the repetition phrases act as adverbs. For example, "harıl harıl" means "incessantly" or "continuously" and is used very popularly, especially for studying.

Turkish Adverbs Example:

 
çok konuşuyor.
s/he is talking a lot.

Turkish Adverb Example Sentence:

In the examples above, the adverbial expression modifies the action. However, the adverbial also can modify the adverb.

hızlı mı konuşuyoruz sizce?
Do you think we talk fast?
If an equivalent for -ly is being searched in Turkish, that would be -CA. But do not hurry to use it for every adjective. Because almost all adjectives serve as an adverb. If you add –CA, you emphasize on the adverb.

i. güzel konuş

ii. güzelce konuş

iii. güzel güzel konuş

These three sentences have very similar meanings with nuances. "güzel konuşmak" means "to give a good speech". The second one the same but with emphasis. First one covers the content of the speech whereas the second one covers the way one makes the speech.

The suffix -ce has other functions also. When added to a noun, it converts nouns into adverbs.

"Hasta" can also be an adjective as in "Hasta adam" (eng. sick man). It is a Persian borrowed word. Hastane (eng. hospital; tr. hasta + hane (a persian last suffix) which means "section, digit". see also: pastane, dershane, tophane)

When -ce is added after the words describing nationalities, the new word means the language that the nation speak. For example, "English" means "İngilizce" and "İngiliz" only means "English person".

If you add -ce/-çe after the words indicating dates or numerical expressions, The newly-formed word becomes adverb.

When expressing time in a sentence, you can use certain nouns as adverbs

The examples above show the nouns in absolute form. But also you can see adverbial nouns in dative or ablative cases.

Bir + den - Bir + e

If you add the suffixes -en/-an after Arabic and Persian borrowings, you’ll form adverbial nouns.

You can form comperatives from adverbs using “çok” and “daha”.

"Bile" and "Hatta" give the meaning of "even" if you use in a sentence.

As you might realize, "bile" modifies the sentence element used before itself. For the first example, it is the bread (obj.) whereas for the second it is the verb "to speak".

You must know that "bile" and "hatta" have similarities but also differences in usage and meaning.

"Hatta" is also used repeatedly to make an emphasis on the meaning.

Adverbs of frequency

Adverbs like sometimes, always, rarely are called frequency adverbs.

Adverbs of place and adverbs of direction are basically the Turkish translations of Up, Above, South etc.

Adverbs of Place is the adverbs that modifies the location where the action happens.

The adverbs listed above can be formed for different cases. Some of them, such as "Orada" is the locative case of "Ora" which means "There" also.

In dative form, the adverbs indicate the direction of the motion.

* "Karşı" is often used to describe the other continent in Istanbul. Let's say you live in the European side in Istanbul. If you say "Karşıya geçeceğim" (lit.I'll pass to the opposite), you mean that you will go to the Anatolian side.

This phrase is also used to describe "to go to jail".

If you add -rA to the Turkish demonstrative adjectives “o”, “şu”, “bu”, it turns the adjectives into nouns. These nouns can easily form dative, ablative and locative cases with “ora”, “bura”, “şura”.

Turkish Adverbs Examples:

 
Bura/Burası çok sıcak
It is very hot here

In the next two examples you’ll see a new suffix: -ı/-sı. It is the partitive suffix. Check the meaning with the next examples:

Adverbs of time modify the verb and tell you when the action happens.

Some time adverbs, also, tell for how long and how frequent the action happens. Time adverbs are categorized in two in Turkish grammar books: definite and indefinite. You don’t need to distinguish these categories but focus on the words and their meanings.

In English, some of the time adverbs are Tomorrow, Yesterday, Annually, Weekly etc. These words corresponds in Turkish to Yarın, Dün, Yıllık or Her Yıl, Haftalık or Her Hafta. Indefinite adverbs are Often, Generally, Normally, Already. In Turkish, Sıkça, Genelde, Normalde, Çoktan, respectively.

Most of the definite adverbs appear in absolute case:

Nouns that indicates time sometimes take the plural suffix -ler/-lar + the third person suffix (-I) and become time adverb. Then it modifies the action with the meaning of frequency.

Time adverbs - Examples:

Locative case gives the meaning of "in, on, at", as its name suggests. But you should know that forming the adverb in locative case is not the only way, nor the correct way in some cases. For example, "Gecede" or "Gecelerde" seems grammatically correct; However, "Her gece" or only "Gece" is more commonly used to express "every night" or "at night".

For months and seasons, it is always Locative case.

For the words "Kış" and "Yaz", natives usually prefer to say "Kışın" and "Yazın". The word "Yaz" comes from the ancient Turkish Yay/Yaz/yā which means Yayılmak, Açmak (eng. to spread, to open). On the other hand, "Kış" is from Kışmak/Kısmak/Kapanmak (eng. to thighten, to close). The word "Bahar" both exists in Persian and Arabic but it is known that Turkish borrowed it from the Persian language. Even though, you hear "Baharın", it is not correct.

The dative form is used to describe a time in the future.

You can see the dative form in many adverbs of time such as Eskiden, Çoktan, Önceden.

Eskiden is the Turkish equivalent of "of yore". It is used to describe the actions that were happening in the past. For example, this word is popularly used when talking nostalgia.

"Çoktan" translates as "already" and "since long" and is widely used.

* "Yollardan geçmek" here implies that they have experienced (they have seen before).

*"Artık" is also used as "residual". It derives from "artmak" which means "remain, increase".

** You also can encounter "hemen hemen" which has a completely different meaning. It means "almost, about"

"Şimdi" is also used as "Recently". The word does not imply a punctual time even though it seems like. For example, in this sentence "Şimdi Türkiye kötü bir durumdan geçiyordu", "Şimdi" represents a large period of time.

"Evvel" is the Arabic equivalent of "Önce" and has lost its popularity in modern Turkish after the language reform.

Gittiğinden beri hiçbir şey yemedi
Gittiğinden bu yana hiçbir şey yemedi
S/he has not eaten anything since the time you left

More examples on Turkish adverbs

Yalnız (Sadece)

They both mean "Only". Yalnızca is popullary used also. In some situations, Yalnız covers the meaning of But (last example).

Yalnız iki kitap mı okudun?
Yalnızca iki kitap mı okudun?
Have you read only two books?

Nitekim (Nasıl ki)

It is often translated as " thus, hence" or "indeed, in fact". You hear this word less day by day. Its 'modern' synonym is more widely used today: "sonuç olarak, nasıl ki".

Halbuki (Oysaki)

Halbuki is an interesting word because hal is Arabic word, -bu is a Turkish and -ki is a Persian suffix. The final word means 'Whereas, though' or 'Yet' (If at the beginning of sentence). Its Turkish equivalent "Oysa ki" comes from two joining words which you probably know: O + ise.

Güya

Dictionaries suggest "though" as its translation; "allegedly" also sounds proper.