B1 · Subordinate clauses: converbs and participles · about 7 minutes
The participle in “-en”: the man who comes
relative clause with “who, which” as the subject
Instead of “the man who is waiting” you say “the waiting man” — and everything comes before the noun.
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 need6
They appear in this topic’s examples and exercises and are new at this point on the learning path.
- eğlenmekto have fun, to enjoy oneself
- kadınwoman
- AlmancaGerman (language)
- garsonwaiter, waitress
- çalışanemployee, member of staff
- kibarpolite
Understand
RememberIf the noun does the action, the verb in -en comes before it: bekleyen adam.
- Signal words
- kim
- biri
- herkes
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.
negation
| after e, i, ö, ü | gelen · bilen · gören |
| after a, ı, o, u | yapan · kalan · oturan |
| after a vowel: y | bekleyen · okuyan |
| with softening | giden · eden |
| negative | gelmeyen · olmayan |
| as a noun | gelenler · bilenler |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is about
The participle comes before the noun.
Kapıda bekleyen adam kim?Who is the man waiting at the door?
It covers present and past.
Dün gelen mektup nerede?Where is the letter that came yesterday?
-en is used when the noun itself does the action.
Türkçe bilen biri lazım.We need someone who knows Turkish.
Without a noun it stands for the person.
Partiye gelenler çok eğlendi.Those who came to the party had a great time.
Negative: -meyen.
Bileti olmayan içeri giremez.Anyone without a ticket can’t go in.
Example sentences
Taksim'e giden otobüs hangisi?Which bus goes to Taksim?
Yanımda oturan kadın doktormuş.The woman sitting next to me turned out to be a doctor.
Almanca konuşan bir garson var mı?Is there a waiter who speaks German?
6 more example sentences
Geç kalanlar içeri giremez.Latecomers can’t go in.
Burada çalışan herkes çok kibar.Everyone who works here is very polite.
Dün arayan kimdi?Who was it that called yesterday?
Kırmızı mont giyen çocuk benim oğlum.The child in the red jacket is my son.
Et yemeyen misafirler için sebze yemeği yaptım.I made a vegetable dish for the guests who don’t eat meat.
Gelen kutusunda yeni bir mesaj var.There is a new message in the inbox.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
If you copy the English relative clause, you put the noun first and look for a word for “who” — often ki: Adam ki kapıda bekliyor. Turkish reverses the order: first what the man is doing, then the man.
Quick check
A warm-up: 2 questions, answered straight away. They do not count towards your progress.
Practise
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Next on the path: 84 · benimki and evdeki: the ending -kiBack to the learning path
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
Turkish has no relative clause like “the man who is waiting at the door”. Instead the verb becomes an adjective and comes before the noun, as in English “the waiting man”: kapıda bekleyen adam, “the at-the-door-waiting man”. No “who”, no comma, and the noun comes last.
Use -en when the noun itself does the action — when it is the subject of the relative clause: the man waits → bekleyen adam. The ending follows two-way harmony (gelen, yapan), with y after a vowel (bekleyen, okuyan).
The participle has no tense of its own: gelen mektup can be “the letter that is coming” or “the letter that came”. The context decides. The negative is -meyen: Türkçe bilmeyen biri “someone who doesn’t know Turkish”.
Without a noun the participle stands for the person: gelenler“those who came”bilen“whoever knows”
A closer look
For the future: “-ecek”
If it should be clear that it is still to come, use -ecek as a participle: yarın gelecek misafirler “the guests who will come tomorrow”. Most relative clauses manage with -en, though.
Long participles
A lot can come before the participle: object, place, time. Everything that is in the English relative clause goes in front, in the usual Turkish order: her sabah otobüsle işe giden komşum “my neighbour who goes to work by bus every morning”.
Worth knowing2
Worth knowing
Compared with English
English puts the relative clause after the noun and starts it with “who” or “which”. Turkish has no relative pronoun; it does what English does in “the laughing boy” — only far more often and with as much in front as you like.
Gülen çocuk benim kardeşim.The boy who is laughing is my brother.
Worth knowing
Participles in the vocabulary
Many ordinary words are participles: çalışan “employee” (one who works), gelen kutusu “inbox” (box of what comes in), okuyan “reader, one who reads”.
Şirketin yüz çalışanı var.The company has a hundred employees.
The verbs on this page, in every form: gelmek · gitmek · oturmak · beklemek · bilmek · konuşmak · eğlenmek