Turkish Cases Explained: All Six, with Examples and Audio

Turkish cases are endings that show what job a noun does in a sentence. English does that job with words like “to”, “in”, “from” and “of”, or with word order. Turkish has six cases: nominative, accusative, dative, locative, ablative and genitive. So “to the house” is eve, “in the house” is evde and “from the house” is evden.

This guide takes the case endings one at a time, each with the question word that calls for it. After that come the spelling rules that change the endings, common verbs that take an unexpected case, and an order to learn them in. Press the play buttons to hear every example.

The six Turkish cases at a glance

Every case has a question word, and the question word already carries the ending. Kim? means “who?”, so Kime? is “to whom?” and Kimden? is “from whom?”. If you know which question a noun answers, you know which ending it needs.

Letters in brackets appear only after a vowel. Here is one noun, ev (house), in all six cases:

• Ev çok büyük.

  The house is very big. (nominative)

• Evi çok beğendik.

  We really liked the house. (accusative)

• Eve gidiyorum.

  I’m going home. (dative)

• Çocuklar evde.

  The children are at home. (locative)

• Evden çıktım.

  I left the house. (ablative)

• Evin bahçesi çok güzel.

  The house’s garden is lovely. (genitive)

You may also see -le/-la (with, by) called a seventh case, the instrumental. It is a shortened form of the word ile (with), so this guide treats it as a separate ending rather than a case: otobüsle (by bus), arkadaşımla (with my friend).

Nominative: the plain dictionary form

The nominative has no ending. It is the form you find in a dictionary, and it answers Kim? (who?) and Ne? (what?). Use it for the subject of a sentence and for a general object, one that is not specific. That second use is the key to the accusative, so keep it in mind.

• Kim geldi? — Ali geldi.

  Who came? — Ali came.

• Otobüs geç kaldı.

  The bus was late.

• Bu ne? — Bu bir harita.

  What’s this? — It’s a map.

• Akşamları kitap okurum.

  I read books in the evenings.

Accusative -(y)ı: the specific object

The accusative case marks a specific direct object: something both you and the listener can identify, such as “the book”, “this film”, a name or a pronoun. It answers Kimi? (whom?) and Neyi? (what?). The ending has four forms, -ı, -i, -u, -ü, and after a vowel a buffer y comes in: arabayı, kahveyi.

Compare the pairs below. Without the ending, the object means “a” or “some”; with it, the object is one you both know:

• Bir araba aldık.

  We bought a car.

• Arabayı nereye park ettin?

  Where did you park the car?

• Film izliyorum.

  I’m watching a film.

• Bu filmi izledin mi?

  Have you seen this film?

• Ayşe'yi gördün mü?

  Have you seen Ayşe?

• Seni yarın ararım.

  I’ll call you tomorrow.

A quick test: if English would say “the”, “this” or “my”, or the object is a name or a pronoun, use the accusative. But the ending is not simply a Turkish “the”, because subjects never take it. In Kitap masada (The book is on the table), the book is the subject, so it has no ending.

Dative -(y)a: to, toward and for

The dative case means to or toward, and often for. It answers Kime? (to whom?) and Nereye? (where to?). It has two forms, -a and -e, with a buffer y after a vowel: okula, eve, Ankara'ya, hastaneye. Use it for where you are going, who receives something, and the price you pay.

• Hafta sonu Ankara'ya gidiyoruz.

  We’re going to Ankara on the weekend.

• Nereye gidiyorsun? — Okula.

  Where are you going? — To school.

• Bu kitabı Elif'e ver.

  Give this book to Elif.

• Anneme çiçek aldım.

  I bought flowers for my mother.

• Bu ceketi bin liraya aldım.

  I bought this jacket for a thousand lira.

• Bana bir çay getirir misiniz?

  Could you bring me a tea?

Notice bana (to me) in the last example: ben and sen change their vowel in the dative, giving bana and sana.

Locative -da: in, on and at

The locative case means in, on or at. It answers Nerede? (where?) and Kimde? (who has it?). It has four forms: -da and -de, which become -ta and -te after a hard consonant: okulda, evde, parkta, otobüste. There is no buffer letter, even after a vowel: arabada.

• Ali şu an okulda.

  Ali is at school right now.

• Anahtarlar masada.

  The keys are on the table.

• Ayşe İstanbul'da yaşıyor.

  Ayşe lives in Istanbul.

• Film saat dokuzda başlıyor.

  The film starts at nine o’clock.

• Anahtar kimde? — Bende.

  Who has the key? — I do.

• Neredesin? — Kafedeyim.

  Where are you? — I’m at the café.

Add the “to be” endings to a locative and you get a whole sentence in one word: Evdeyim (I’m at home), İstanbul'dayız (We’re in Istanbul).

Ablative -dan: from, out of and than

The ablative case means from or out of, and in comparisons it means than. It answers Nereden? (where from?) and Kimden? (from whom?). Its four forms mirror the locative, -dan, -den, -tan, -ten, and like the locative it takes no buffer letter after a vowel: Ankara'dan, hastaneden.

• Arkadaşım Londra'dan geldi.

  My friend came from London.

• Bu mesaj kimden?

  Who is this message from?

• Saat altıda işten çıkıyorum.

  I leave work at six.

• Kedi pencereden atladı.

  The cat jumped out of the window.

• Çay kahveden ucuz.

  Tea is cheaper than coffee.

Genitive -(n)ın: of and whose

The genitive case marks the owner, like English ’s or “of”. It answers Kimin? (whose?) and Neyin? (of what?). After a consonant it has four forms, -ın, -in, -un, -ün, and after a vowel a buffer n comes in: -nın, -nin, -nun, -nün.

The genitive usually works as a pair. The owner takes the genitive, and the thing owned takes the possessive ending -(s)ı: Ali'nin arabası (Ali’s car), evin kapısı (the door of the house).

• Ayşe'nin ablası doktor.

  Ayşe’s older sister is a doctor.

• Otelin adı ne?

  What’s the name of the hotel?

• Türkiye'nin başkenti Ankara.

  The capital of Turkey is Ankara.

• Bu çanta kimin? — Benim.

  Whose bag is this? — It’s mine.

• Araba evin önünde.

  The car is in front of the house.

Don’t confuse the possessive -(s)ı with the accusative -ı. Ali'nin evi is “Ali’s house”, but Evi gördüm is “I saw the house”. When a word with -(s)ı takes a case ending, an n comes in first: Ali'nin evinde (at Ali’s house).

Buffer letters, consonant changes and apostrophes

The case ending comes after any plural and possessive endings: arkadaşlarımdan (from my friends) is arkadaş + lar + ım + dan. Its shape changes for four reasons.

Vowel harmony. The ending follows the last vowel of the word. The dative, locative and ablative choose between a and e: back vowels (a, ı, o, u) take a, front vowels (e, i, ö, ü) take e. The accusative and genitive choose between four: ı after a or ı, i after e or i, u after o or u, ü after ö or ü. If this is new, read our guide to Turkish vowel harmony first.

Buffer letters. Turkish endings avoid putting two vowels side by side, so after a vowel the accusative and dative add y (arabayı, arabaya) and the genitive adds n (arabanın). Two common words take y in the genitive instead: su (water) gives suyun and ne (what) gives neyin. The locative and ablative start with a consonant, so they need no buffer.

Consonant changes. After the hard consonants ç, f, h, k, p, s, ş, t, the d of the locative and ablative becomes t: kitapta, parktan. Separately, many words of more than one syllable that end in p, ç or k soften that consonant before a vowel (p → b, ç → c, k → ğ): kitap → kitabı, ağaç → ağaca, sokak → sokağa. Some words ending in t change it to d, but many, like saat → saati, do not. One-syllable words usually keep their consonant: top → topu, süt → sütü.

Apostrophes. With names of people, cities and countries, put an apostrophe before the ending: Ali'yi, İstanbul'da, Türkiye'nin. Names keep their spelling, so Mehmet gives Mehmet'e, even though in speech it usually sounds like Mehmede. With ordinary nouns, the ending is joined to the word. A separate de or da is a different word meaning “too”, as in Ben de evdeyim (I’m at home too).

Here are four nouns side by side: okul (no changes), araba (buffer letters), kitap (consonant changes) and İstanbul (apostrophe).

Personal pronouns take the same endings with a few surprises: bana and sana in the dative, benim and bizim in the genitive, and an extra n in every case form of o.

Verbs that take an unexpected case

Some verbs need a case you would not guess from English. English says “wait for someone”, but Turkish uses the accusative and no word for “for”; “get on the bus” takes the dative. These common verbs often trip up English speakers:

Sevmek often takes the accusative even for things you like in general, where English has no “the”. Notice too that hoşlanmak, another “to like”, takes the ablative:

• Kedileri çok severim.

  I really like cats.

• Seni kafede bekliyorum.

  I’m waiting for you at the café.

• Taksim'de metroya bindim.

  I got on the metro at Taksim.

• Şu fotoğrafa bak!

  Look at that photo!

• Sana yardım edebilir miyim?

  Can I help you?

• Bir sonraki durakta otobüsten iniyoruz.

  We’re getting off the bus at the next stop.

• Köpeklerden korkuyorum.

  I’m afraid of dogs.

• Kalabalıktan hoşlanmıyorum.

  I don’t like crowds.

Learn each of these verbs together with its case, as one chunk: -e binmek, -den korkmak, -i beklemek. Many Turkish dictionaries show the case next to the verb in the same way.

In what order should you learn the Turkish cases?

You don’t need all six cases at once. In this order each step builds on the one before, and the Mitsling course follows it.

1. Locative first. Two vowel options, no buffer letter, and useful from day one: Neredesin? Evdeyim. You meet it in A1 unit 6, Where are you?, with places around town.

2. Dative and ablative next. The ablative is the locative plus n, and the dative is a single vowel (with a buffer y after a vowel). Together the three give you where, where to and where from. They come in A1 unit 7, Where are you going?, along with -le/-la.

3. Accusative in A2. It needs four-way vowel harmony, consonant softening and the idea of specific versus general objects, so it is easier once you know some verbs. It comes in A2 unit 2, Shopping.

4. Genitive last. It works as a pair with the possessive endings, so get comfortable with evim, evin, evi (my, your, his or her house) first. It comes in A2 unit 8, My home.

Frequently asked questions

How many cases are there in Turkish? Six: nominative, accusative, dative, locative, ablative and genitive. Some grammars add the instrumental -le/-la as a seventh. The endings you need to learn are the same either way.

Do adjectives take case endings too? Not when they come before a noun. Only the last word of the noun phrase takes the ending: büyük evde (in the big house), o güzel kitabı (that beautiful book, as an object).

Are Turkish cases harder than German or Russian cases? In several ways they are simpler: there is no gender, every noun takes the same set of endings, adjectives never change, and the plural simply comes before the case ending: evlerde, okullardan. What takes practice is choosing the right case, especially with verbs like binmek and korkmak.

Learn the cases step by step with Mitsling

Case endings stick when you use them in short, real sentences. Mitsling’s A1 course covers the locative, dative and ablative in units 6 and 7, with audio for every phrase and exercises that ask you to choose the right ending. The accusative and genitive follow in A2.

If you would like someone to correct your endings as you speak, you can also book 1-on-1 live lessons with Kerem.