Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Using the Passive Voice in Turkish _ Turkish Basics
Using the Passive Voice in Turkish _ Turkish Basics
Like 24
Passive Voice
(n , ın/in/un/ün , ıl/il/ul/ül)
Verbs can be stated in the active voice or the passive voice.
In the active voice, the person or thing that is carrying out the action is clear. We know who the "doer"
is.
In the passive voice, we are only aware of who/what the action is being performed upon. We don't
always know who is doing the action. In English, we generally express the passive voice using "to be".
to watch to be watched
to open to be opened
to read to be read
to find to be found
In Turkish, we can convert a verb into the passive voice by attaching certain suffixes to its root. We
obtain the verb root by removing the "mak/mek" from the infinitive form. For example, the verb root of
"izlemek" would be "izle", "bulmak" would be "bul" and "açmak" would be "aç".
There are three different passive voice suffixes that we can attach based on the spelling of the verb
root. We focus on whether its last letter is a vowel or consonant.
The first case is when the verb root has a vowel at the end of it. To convert it into the passive voice
we attach a "n" after it.
Examples:
The second case is when the verb has the letter "l" at the end. To convert it into the passive voice we
attach one of "ın/in/un/ün" after it based on its last vowel:
Examples:
The third case is when the verb root ends in a consonant besides "l". To convert it into the passive
voice we attach one of "ıl/il/ul/ül" after it based on its last vowel:
Examples:
Active: Ben pencereyi açtım - I opened the window
Passive: Pencere açıldı - The window was opened
Active: Sen çantayı trende unuttun - You forgot the bag on the train
Passive: Çanta trende unutuldu - The bag was forgotten on the train
Share/Print: Like 24
More Turkish:
AddThis
Design: styleshout