As with many other languages, Turkish nouns can be singular or plural. In this lesson, we will learn how the plural of nouns is formed. One of the fundamental features of the Turkish language is the fact that vowels are grouped into two sets:
1. A, I, O, U 2. E, İ, Ö, Ü
Most of the time, a randomly chosen word will only contain vowels from one of these two groups. This rule affects the way the plural is formed in Turkish.
HOW TO FORM PLURALS IN TURKISH
If the last syllable of a given word contains a vowel from the first group (A, I, O, U), then we add the suffix “LAR” to form the plural.
If the last syllable of a given word contains a vowel from the second group (E, İ, Ö, Ü), then we add the suffix “LER” to form the plural.
GÖZLÜK ⇾ GÖZLÜKLER EV ⇾ EVLER ARABA ⇾ ARABALAR MEYVE ⇾ MEYVELER SINIF ⇾ SINIFLAR EL ⇾ ELLER AYAKKABI ⇾ AYAKKABILAR KUŞ ⇾ KUŞLAR
The Turkish language has many loanwords that were taken from Persian, Arabic, French, Italian, etc. These words may contain vowels from both the first and the second group at the same time, for example: kitap, kalem, kuaför, bina. Make sure you form the plural according to the last syllable, as stated above: kitaplar, kalemler, kuaförler, binalar.
NOTABLE EXCEPTIONS
SAAT ⇾ SAATLER KALP ⇾ KALPLER TERMINAL ⇾ TERMİNALLER HARF ⇾ HARFLER
EXAMPLE PARAGRAPH WITH PLURAL NOUNS
Masamda ne kadar çok şey var! Kalemler, kitaplar, defterler. A bakın burada bir kalem daha var. Mavi kitabın altında. Her gün masama oturur, defterime yazılar yazarım. Saatlerce bu masada oturur, öğrencilerime neler öğreteyim düşünürüm.
How many things I have on my desk! Pens, books, notebooks. Oh look, here is one more pen. Just below the blue book. Every day, I sit down to my desk, and write some texts to my notebook. I spend hours sitting at my desk, thinking about what to teach to my students.
