sevmek vs beğenmek vs hoşlanmak: 'Like' | Turkish Grammar

English funnels an enormous emotional range — love, fondness, approval, attraction — through one tiny verb, like (with love doing the heavy lifting at the top end). Turkish splits that range across three verbs: sevmek, beğenmek, and hoşlanmak. They differ in two ways at once, which is exactly what makes them hard. They differ in meaning (standing fondness vs. a verdict of approval vs. attraction), and they differ in the case they govern (accusative vs. accusative vs. ablative). Pick the wrong one and you make two mistakes in a single word: a meaning error and a grammar error. This page sorts them out.

The quick answer

Use sevmek (+ accusative) for love and general, lasting fondness — people, foods, activities, places you care about over time. Use beğenmek (+ accusative) for a verdict of approval about a specific thing you've just encountered — a film, a haircut, a dish, a proposal. Use hoşlanmak (+ ablative, the -DAn case) for being attracted to someone, or for taking pleasure in a kind of thing. When in doubt between the first two, ask: am I reporting a feeling I carry around (sevmek), or am I delivering a judgment about one instance (beğenmek)?

💡

The deepest split is grammatical: sevmek and beğenmek take the accusative (the -(y)I object), but hoşlanmak takes the ablative (-DAn, "from"). So senden hoşlanıyorum literally reads "I take pleasure from you." Lock the case to the verb the moment you learn it.

The same "I like it," three ways

The clearest way to feel the difference is to watch the same English sentence land on three different verbs depending on what you actually mean.

Onu seviyorum.

I love him / her. (lasting affection — a partner, a friend, family)

Onu beğendim.

I liked him / her. (I approve — of an outfit, a performance, a first impression)

Ondan hoşlanıyorum.

I'm into him / her. (romantic attraction — note the ablative ondan, 'from him/her')

Three different verbs, three different case forms — onu, onu, ondan — and three genuinely different messages. Onu seviyorum is a confession of love. Onu beğendim is an approving verdict ("I liked her work / her look"). Ondan hoşlanıyorum is the classic Turkish way to say you have a crush. A learner who reaches for sevmek for all three will tell their new acquaintance they love them, which is not what they mean.

sevmek: love and standing fondness (+ accusative)

sevmek is the broadest and warmest. It covers romantic love, family love, and the general, durable fondness English handles with "I like / I love" for things you've cared about for a while. The object goes in the accusative.

Seni çok seviyorum.

I love you very much.

Kahveyi sütlü severim, şekersiz.

I like my coffee with milk, no sugar.

Çocukken yağmuru çok severdim.

As a child I really loved the rain.

Notice the two registers of sevmek. With the present continuous (seviyorum) it tends to read as a present, often emotional, statement: seni seviyorum is "I love you" here and now. With the aorist (severim) it states a habitual preference, a standing trait: kahveyi sütlü severim is "I'm a coffee-with-milk person." For likes and dislikes about food, music, weather, and activities — the things you'd put on a "likes" profile — the aorist of sevmek is the everyday workhorse.

Bu şehri seviyorum, insanları çok sıcakkanlı.

I love this city — the people are so warm.

Köpekleri severim ama kedileri daha çok severim.

I like dogs, but I like cats more.

beğenmek: a verdict of approval (+ accusative)

beğenmek is not about lasting feeling; it's about approving of a specific instance you've encountered. You beğen a film you just watched, a dress in a shop window, someone's idea, a meal at a restaurant. It's the verb of "I liked it" as a judgment, and it very naturally appears in the past tense (beğendim) because you're reporting a verdict reached after experiencing the thing. The object is accusative.

Filmi beğendin mi?

Did you like the film?

Yeni saç kesimini çok beğendim.

I really liked your new haircut.

Teklifi beğenmedik, başka bir ev bakacağız.

We didn't like the offer — we'll look at another house.

This is also the "approve / find good" verb in commerce and social media: the Turkish word for a social-media like is beğeni, and beğenmek is the button. If you want to say you approve of how something looks or turned out, beğenmek is almost always the right choice — and sevmek would sound oddly intense, as if you'd fallen in love with a haircut.

Fotoğrafını beğendim, çok güzel çıkmışsın.

I liked your photo — you came out really well.

💡

A useful test: if you could replace English "like" with "approve of" or "think is good," you want beğenmek. If you'd replace it with "am fond of" or "love," you want sevmek.

hoşlanmak: attraction and pleasure (+ ablative)

hoşlanmak is built on hoş ("pleasant") and literally means "to be pleased by / take pleasure from." Its signature use is romantic or physical attraction — it's how you say you fancy someone — and it governs the ablative case (-DAn), because you take pleasure from the person or thing. This case government is the single most important thing to memorize about it.

Galiba senden hoşlanıyorum.

I think I'm into you. (note senden, ablative — 'from you')

O tür müzikten pek hoşlanmam.

I'm not really into that kind of music.

Yalan söyleyen insanlardan hoşlanmıyorum.

I don't like people who lie.

Two things to notice. First, the ablative is non-negotiable: senden hoşlanıyorum, never seni hoşlanıyorum. Second, beyond the "crush" meaning, hoşlanmak also expresses taste in a category of thing — o tür müzikten hoşlanmam ("I don't enjoy that sort of music"). In that categorical sense it overlaps with sevmek, but it stays a touch more detached and measured: sevmek says "I love it," hoşlanmak says "I find it pleasant / I'm fond of it." For declaring attraction to a person, though, hoşlanmak is the standard, and the others don't substitute cleanly.

Side-by-side reference

Verb	Case it governs	Core meaning	Typical use
sevmek	accusative -(y)I (onu, seni, kahveyi)	love / lasting fondness	people you love; standing likes (food, music, weather)
beğenmek	accusative -(y)I (filmi, onu, teklifi)	approve of a specific instance	a verdict on a film, look, idea, meal; the social-media "like"
hoşlanmak	ablative -DAn (senden, müzikten)	be attracted to / take pleasure from	romantic attraction; measured liking of a category

Minimal pairs where the choice flips the meaning

Because all three can translate as "like," swapping them rewrites what you're saying. Watch how the message changes while the English stays nearly the same.

Komşumuzu seviyorum.

I'm fond of our neighbour. (warm, friendly affection)

Komşumuzu beğendim.

I liked our neighbour. (I approved of him — his manner, his look, a first impression)

Komşumuzdan hoşlanıyorum.

I have a crush on our neighbour. (ablative — romantic interest)

Same neighbour, three relationships. This is why Turkish keeps the verbs apart: the distinction carries real social weight. Telling someone komşumdan hoşlanıyorum is a confession; komşumu beğendim is a compliment; komşumu seviyorum is warm but platonic.

Source-language comparison: why English misleads you

English gives you almost no signal here, because it routes everything through "like" and "love." Worse, the English habit of softening love to like ("I really like him") pushes learners toward a single Turkish verb for all three feelings — usually sevmek, because it's the first one taught. But Turkish has decided that approving of a thing (beğenmek), loving a person (sevmek), and being attracted to a person (hoşlanmak) are three different acts, and it even marks them with different cases. If you've studied Spanish, the sevmek / beğenmek contrast will feel a little like amar vs. gustar — a feeling you carry vs. something that strikes you well — and hoşlanmak + ablative adds a third axis English has no grammar for at all.

Common mistakes

The dominant error is collapsing all three into one verb, and the runner-up is using the accusative with hoşlanmak.

❌ Senden seviyorum.

Incorrect — sevmek takes the accusative, not the ablative: seni seviyorum.

✅ Seni seviyorum.

I love you.

❌ Onu hoşlanıyorum.

Incorrect — hoşlanmak takes the ablative -DAn, never the accusative: ondan hoşlanıyorum.

✅ Ondan hoşlanıyorum.

I'm into him/her.

❌ Filmi sevdim.

Odd — for a verdict on a film you just watched, use beğenmek: filmi beğendim. (Filmi severim is fine, but means it's a film you love and rewatch.)

✅ Filmi beğendim.

I liked the film.

❌ Yeni saç kesimini hoşlandım.

Two errors — wrong verb and wrong case. To approve of a haircut, use beğenmek + accusative: kesimini beğendim.

✅ Yeni saç kesimini beğendim.

I liked your new haircut.

❌ Komşumuzdan beğendim.

Incorrect — beğenmek takes the accusative, not the ablative: komşumuzu beğendim.

✅ Komşumuzu beğendim.

I liked our neighbour.

Key takeaways

sevmek (+ accusative) = love / lasting fondness — people you love and your standing likes; aorist severim for habitual preferences, present seviyorum for "I love you."
beğenmek (+ accusative) = a verdict of approval about a specific instance — a film, a look, an idea; naturally past tense (beğendim), and the social-media "like."
hoşlanmak (+ ablative -DAn) = attraction to a person, or measured pleasure in a category — senden hoşlanıyorum, müzikten hoşlanmam.
The wrong choice is two errors at once: a meaning error and a case error. Memorize the case with the verb.
English "like/love" gives no signal — sort by love a person (sevmek) vs. approve of a thing (beğenmek) vs. attracted to / pleased by (hoşlanmak).

Now practice Turkish

Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.

Start learning Turkish→