“It is unnecessary to specify how the action is carried out; it is automatically inferred.”

We use subordinate clauses all the time in everyday speech:

"The cat that I see"
"... because I constantly worked"
"The girl who reads"

To master Turkish properly, it's essential to understand the different types of subordinate clauses.

There are various ways to form subordinate clauses, but the most commonly used structure involves the -dik suffix.

-EN FORM

Add -en to the verb’s root.

For instance: gelmek (to come) => gelen (that come)

Eve gelen çocuklar mutlular : The children who come to the house are happy.
Orada çalışan memur : The employee who works there.

Note: -en follows the vocal harmony (-an if last vowel of verb’s root is a hard vowel)

-DIK FORM

Add -dik to the verb’s root + the possessif ending
- -dik follows the vocal harmony and becomes -duk, -dük
- -dik + possessive often becomes -diğ, -duğ, -düğ because of the consonant harmony with the possessive ending.

For instance: izle-mek (to watch) => izle + dik + im (that I watch)

Film izlemediğim çok ilginç => The movie that I watch is interesting

Look at the following:

gördüğün kuş - the bird that you see.
yaşadığım sokak - the street where I live.
sohbet ettiğim adam - the man with whom I’m speaking.
geçtiğiniz şehir - the city through which you pass
uğruna savaştığım sebep - The cause for which I am fighting.

The -dik form can translate relations such as "“that“, “where“, “with whom“, “through which”, “for which“, almost all relations except “who” that can only be translated with -an/-en.

Turkish only translates the relationship between an object and a subject performing an action on that object. It is unnecessary to specify how the action is carried out; it is automatically inferred.

There are specific structures:

Odaya girdiğimiz zaman, pençere kapatıldı - When we entered the room, the window was closed.
Çok yumurta aldığını gibi menemeni yapabilirsin - As you bought a lot of eggs and tomatos, you can make a menemen.
Adam, devamlı çalıştığı için, Ankara dışına pek çıkmadı - As the man continuously worked, he could not leave Ankara.
Paris çok güzel bir şehir olduğu halde, burada mutsuzum - Even though Paris is a beautiful city, I am not happy here.
Yarın yemeğin için isteğınız kadar elma getirin - For tomorrow’s meal, bring as many apple as you want.

Istanbul’a vardığıdan beri pek evden çıkmadı - Since he arrives in Istanbul, he didn’t go out much.
Yeni bir köpek ? kendimi daha mutlu hissediyorum - Since I have a dog, I feel happier
Gazeteleri okuduğumden beri ben daha kültürlüyüm - Since I read the news I am more cultured.

his is the most important rule, the first to know.

This rule organises the use of vowels in stems and in suffixes.

Knowing this rule will help you to know how to write a word, which suffixes to use.

This rule is called the vocal harmony.

In türkish, there are 2 sets of vowels.

The first group contains the hard vowels: a, ı, o, u

The second group contains the soft vowels: e, i, ö, ü (be careful, ö, ü are letters in turkish)

To say it in a simple way, these vowels have for only friends the vowels of their group, they don’t want to meet vowels for the other group, meaning that some vowels are followed only by the vowels from the same group.

1 - Use it to form plural

This help you to know how to make the plural form of a word:

To put a word at the plural, look at the last vowel of the noun.

If its a hard vowel, the plural is -lar
If it’s a soft vowel, the plural is -ler

Iyi gün => ü is a soft vowel, the plural is günler

Examples:

bir kelebek, kelebekler = a butterfly, butterflies
bir fil, filler - an elephant, elephants
bir gün, günler - a day, days
bir fil

2 - Use it for locative forms

The locative is used to express where someone or something is.

The suffix is

‘-da‘ after a hard vowel
‘-de‘ after a soft vowel

Examples:

I am at the hotel: Hoteldeyim
He is at the cinema: cinemada

3 - Use it to make profession names

In turkish, we make profession nouns by adding the suffix

-cu for hard vowels

-ci for for soft vowels