Turkish Adverbs – Lesson 1

Lessons > Speaking Turkish in 30 Days

All Adverbs in Turkish

In our previous lessons we learned about Adjectives and Articles in Turkish, today we will learn about the different types of Adverbs in Turkish. Like in English, Turkish adverbs are separated into five groups.

1. Adverbs of Manner
2. Adverbs of Place
3. Adverbs of Time
4. Adverbs of Quantity
5. Adverbs of Question

Adverbs of Manner

The first type of adverb that you will probably use a lot when you start speaking Turkish is the adverbs of manner. These adverbs describe in what manner the action (the verb) is done.

Turkish adverbs are made by adding the suffix “-ce/-ca/-çe/-ça” to adjectives:

Yavaş Slow	Yavaşça Slowly
Hızlı Fast / Quick	Hızlıca Quickly
Dikkatli Careful	Dikkatlice Carefully
Gizli Secret	Gizlice Secretly
Sessiz Quiet	Sessizce Quietly

The adverb of manner are used before a verb and and the question “nasıl” (how) :

• Doktor hastayla sessizce konuştu.
• The doctor talked quietly with the patient.

• Annem yavaşça odama girdi.
• My mother slowly entered my room

• Casus gizlice çatıya çıktı.
• The spy secretly climbed the roof

Be careful with the vowel harmony when using the adverbs of manner suffix. Some adjectives can’t use the “-ce” suffix, instead they use the word “bir biçimde” or “bir şekilde” meaning “in a way” that also has the same meaning of the “-ce” suffix.

• Kız, üzücü bir şekilde hikaye anlattı.
• The girl told a story in a sad way.

• Oğlan sempatik bir biçimde kıza yaklaştı.
• The boy approached the girl sympathetically.

Adverbs of Place & Direction

These adverbs show the place where the action is happening or directed towards. In order to find the adverb of place in a sentence, we ask the question “nereye” meaning “where”. Unlike the adverbs of manner, adverbs of place are used without suffixes. If an adverb of place gets any suffix, it becomes a noun.

Here is a list of Adverbs of Place:

İçeri	Inside
Dışarı	Outside
Yukarı	Up / Upward
Aşağı	Down / Downward
Sağ	Right
Sol	Left
İleri	Forward
Geri	Backward
Karşı	Opposite
Doğru	Towards

Let’s see some sentence examples:

• Tarkan aşağı atladı.
• Tarkan jumped down.

• Lütfen biraz daha geri git.
• Please go backwards a little more

You can also use the dative, locative, and the ablative suffixes to show where the location is at or the movement is from.

• Işıklardan karşıya geç ve sağa dön.
• Walk across the lights and turn right.

• Dışarıda bekleme, içeriye gel.
• Don’t wait outside, come inside.

• Selin çok geriden geliyor.
• Selin is coming from way back / behind.

Adverbs of Time

Adverbs of time tell us the time the action occurs and it answers the question “ne zaman” meaning “when”. Adverbs of time answer three types of question regarding the time of an action:

1. Repeated time locations
2. Frequency of the action
3. Duration of the action

First let’s see a list of Adverbs of Time in Turkish:

Dün	Yesterday
Bugün	Today
Yarın	Tomorrow
Sabah	In the morning
Öğlen	At noon
Akşam	In the evening
Şimdi	Now
Sonra	Later
Haftaya	Next Week
Geçen Hafta	Last Week
Gelecek Sene	Next Year
Yakında	Soon
Pazartesi	Monday
Çarşamba	Wednesday
Cuma	Friday

Let’s see some examples:

• Ahmet dün Ankara’dan geldi.
• Ahmet came from Ankara yesterday.

• Geçen hafta arkadaşlarımla sinemaya gittik.
• Last week we went to the cinema with my friends

• Bu ödevi sonra yapacağım.
• I’m gonna do this homework later.

By adding the suffix “-leri/-ları” to the name of the day or parts of the day, we can tell how frequently the action occurs.

• Cumaları basketbol oynarım.
• On Fridays I play basketball.

• Sabahları kahvaltıda hep süt içerim.
• I always drink milk at breakfast in the mornings.

The word “her” meaning “every” is also used with the name of the day or parts of the day.

• Her akşam yoga yaparım.
• I do yoga every night.

Adverbs of Frequency

Here is a small list of adverbs that express frequency:

Hep	Always
Her … (zaman, akşam, gün,…)	Every … (time, night, day)
Genellikle	Usually
Sık Sık	Often
Ara sıra	Sometimes
Bazen	Sometimes
Hiç / Hiçbir Zaman	Never
Günde / Haftada / Ayda/ Yılda bir / iki / üç kez	One/Two/three times a /day/week/month/year

• Genellikle dışarıda yürüş yaparım.
• I usually do walking outside.

• Günde iki kez şınav çekerim.
• I do push ups two times a day.

It is possible to use more than one adverb of frequency consequently.

• Bazen hiç televizyon izlemem.
• I sometimes never watch television.

• Ara sıra öğlenleri hamburger yerim.
• Sometimes at noon I eat a hamburger.

Adverbs of Duration

When you want to talk about the duration of an event, we can use a numeral with the following words from the chart:

Saniye	Seconds
Dakika	Minutes
Saat	Hours
Gün	Days
Hafta	Weeks
Ay	Months
Yıl	Years

• Seni üç saat bekledim.
• I waited three hours for you.

• Ankara’da üç yıl yaşadım.
• I lived in Ankara for 3 years.

• Her gün otuz dakika meditasyon yaparım.
• Everyday I do thirty minutes of meditation.

We will continue with Adverbs the next day, keep revising this and the earlier lessons for now.

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