A1 · Adjectives and adverbs · about 7 minutes
The adjective comes first and stays the same
position of the adjective
Before the noun with no ending at all, after the noun as a statement — and “a” goes in between.
Do you know this already?
“New to me”: the explanation first, then practice. “Test myself”: 3 short questions – get at least two right and you go straight to the harder exercises.
Words you will need3
They appear in this topic’s examples and exercises and are new at this point on the learning path.
- lezzetlitasty, delicious
- uzunlong; tall (person)
- elbisedress
Understand
RememberThe adjective comes first and stays as it is — the noun carries all the endings.
- Signal words
- çok
- biraz
- bir
The form
The patterns at a glance
Each row first says when or what the pattern is used for, then gives an example in Turkish.
| adjective before the noun | büyük ev |
| plural only on the noun | büyük evler |
| case only on the noun | büyük evde |
| “a big house” | büyük bir ev |
| “the house is big” | Ev büyük. |
| “very big” | çok büyük |
| “I am tired” | Yorgunum. |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is about
The adjective comes before the noun and does not change.
Bu güzel bir şehir.This is a beautiful city.
Plural and case go only on the noun, never on the adjective.
Küçük çocuklar bahçede oynuyor.The little children are playing in the garden.
“A” goes between the adjective and the noun.
Burada güzel bir park var.There is a nice park here.
After the noun the adjective is a statement: “is …”.
Bu oda çok küçük.This room is very small.
With the ending of “to be” it means “I am …”, “you are …”.
Bugün çok mutluyum.I am very happy today.
Example sentences
Mehmet yeni bir telefon istiyor.Mehmet wants a new phone.
Bu restoranda yemekler çok lezzetli.The food in this restaurant is very tasty.
Eski bir evde oturuyorlar.They live in an old house.
6 more example sentences
Kardeşim çok uzun.My brother is very tall.
Büyük bir bardak su, lütfen.A big glass of water, please.
Elif akıllı ve çalışkan bir öğrenci.Elif is a clever and hard-working pupil.
Bu ayakkabılar çok pahalı.These shoes are very expensive.
Küçük odada iki yatak var.There are two beds in the small room.
Çay biraz soğuk.The tea is a bit cold.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
Because every ending in a Turkish phrase seems to go somewhere, learners like to put the plural on the adjective too: büyükler evler. Turkish, like English, says the plural only once, on the noun: “big houses”, not “bigs houses”.
Quick check
A warm-up: 2 questions, answered straight away. They do not count towards your progress.
Practise
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The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
The adjective comes before the noun, as in English: büyük ev“big house”sıcak çay“hot tea” It never takes an ending. Plural and case go only on the noun: büyük evler“big houses”büyük evde“in the big house”
“A big house” is büyük bir ev: bir moves between the adjective and the noun — “big a house”. That is the normal order; bir büyük ev also exists, but then stresses the number — “one big house, not two”.
If the adjective comes after the noun, it is a statement: Ev büyük. “The house is big.” You need no “is”, and for “I am …” you add the endings of “to be”: Yorgunum. “I am tired.”
“Very” is çok, “a bit” biraz; both come right before the adjective: çok güzel, biraz pahalı. çok before a noun means “a lot of”: çok su “a lot of water”.
A closer look
“bir” before or after the adjective
güzel bir oda is the ordinary “a nice room”. bir güzel oda sounds like a number or like storytelling (“a really lovely room”). If in doubt, put bir right before the noun.
The adjective without a noun
If you leave out the noun, the adjective takes its place and its endings: Kırmızıyı istiyorum. “I want the red one.” English needs “one” here; Turkish does not. Fixed words come about this way too: büyükler “grown-ups”, literally “the bigs”.
Worth knowing2
Worth knowing
Compared with English
Like English, Turkish has a single form of the adjective and puts it before the noun. The only thing to watch is position: in front means “big …”, after the noun means “is big”.
Büyük ev, büyük evler, büyük evde.The big house, the big houses, in the big house.
Worth knowing
“Very” and “a lot of” are one word
Before an adjective çok means “very”, before a noun “a lot of, many”. You need no separate word for “many” at first.
Çok güzel bir evde çok kitap var.There are a lot of books in a very nice house.
The verbs on this page, in every form: istemek · oturmak · oynamak