The second great postposition family takes the ablative -DAn ("from"). Its members are önce "before", sonra "after", beri "since", dolayı / ötürü "because of", and başka "apart from". With these you mark the complement with the ablative ending, so "after the lesson" is dersten sonra, "since morning" is sabahtan beri, "because of this" is bundan dolayı. This is the mirror image of the dative postpositions (göre, doğru, rağmen): there the case was dative; here it's ablative. The one wrinkle that trips everyone up is that önce and sonra abandon the ablative when they express a duration — "three days ago" is üç gün önce with a bare time noun, not *üç günden önce. Sorting those two patterns is the heart of this page.
The ablative ending, and its hardening
The ablative suffix is -DAn, harmonizing to -dan / -den. The capital D signals that it hardens to -tan / -ten after a voiceless consonant (the set p, ç, t, k, s, ş, h, f). So:
| Noun | Ends in | Ablative | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| ders | s (voiceless) | dersten | from the lesson |
| yemek | k (voiceless) | yemekten | from the meal |
| iş | ş (voiceless) | işten | from work |
| ev | v (voiced) | evden | from home |
| sabah | h (voiceless) | sabahtan | from morning |
| bu | vowel | bundan | from this |
Getting dersten and yemekten right (not *dersden, *yemekden) is half of sounding natural with this family. For the full ablative paradigm, see the ablative case.
işten, maçtan, sabahtan); after everything else it's -dan/-den (evden, bundan).-DAn sonra — "after"
sonra after an ablative noun means "after X" — after a point in time or a reference event. The noun takes the ablative.
Yemekten sonra biraz yürüyelim.
Let's take a little walk after the meal.
Dersten sonra kütüphaneye gideceğim.
I'll go to the library after the lesson.
Senden sonra kimse aramadı.
Nobody called after you.
-DAn önce — "before"
önce after an ablative noun means "before X". Same pattern, ablative complement.
Maçtan önce sahaya çıktılar.
They came out onto the pitch before the match.
Benden önce o konuştu.
He spoke before me.
Yatmadan önce dişlerini fırçala.
Brush your teeth before bed.
The last example uses the converb -mAdAn ("yatmadan") to attach önce to a verb — see the -mAdAn converb and the dedicated önce and sonra page for clause-level "before / after".
The duration twist: bare noun + önce / sonra
Here is the split that defines önce/sonra. When you measure a stretch of time away from now — "three days ago", "in two hours" — the time expression stays a bare noun, with no ablative:
Bu mektubu üç gün önce yazdım.
I wrote this letter three days ago.
İki saat sonra görüşürüz.
See you in two hours.
Bir hafta önce taşındık.
We moved a week ago.
Compare the two patterns directly. With a point of reference, you use the ablative: dersten sonra = "after the lesson". With a duration counted from now, you use a bare noun: üç ders sonra would mean "three lessons later". The rule of thumb: if the complement answers "after what event?", use the ablative; if it answers "how long before/later?", leave it bare.
Toplantıdan sonra, yani iki saat sonra, seni ararım.
After the meeting — that is, in two hours — I'll call you.
That single sentence holds both: toplantıdan sonra (ablative, an event) and iki saat sonra (bare, a duration).
yemekten sonra, dersten önce. Duration → bare time noun: iki saat sonra, üç gün önce. Ask whether the complement is a thing you happen after or a length of time — that picks the pattern.-DAn beri — "since"
beri marks the starting point of an ongoing situation: "since X". The complement is ablative, and the verb is typically in a continuous or present tense because the situation still holds.
Sabahtan beri seni bekliyorum.
I've been waiting for you since morning.
Pazartesiden beri hava hep yağmurlu.
The weather has been rainy since Monday.
Çocukluğumdan beri deniz kenarında yaşıyorum.
I've lived by the sea since my childhood.
English "for" durations ("for three hours") use a different structure, but English "since" + a point maps cleanly onto -DAn beri.
-DAn dolayı / -DAn ötürü — "because of"
dolayı and ötürü both mean "because of / due to", and both govern the ablative. dolayı is the more common; ötürü is a touch more formal but interchangeable.
Bundan dolayı toplantı iptal edildi.
Because of this, the meeting was cancelled.
Sis yüzünden değil, kardan dolayı geç kaldık.
We were late not because of fog but because of the snow.
Gürültüden ötürü hiç uyuyamadım.
Because of the noise, I couldn't sleep at all.
These overlap with yüzünden ("because of", usually a negative cause) and with concessive rağmen ("despite"); for the contrast between cause and concession, see concession with rağmen.
-DAn başka — "apart from / other than"
başka after an ablative means "apart from / other than / besides". It also doubles as an adjective ("another"), but with an ablative complement it's the postposition.
Senden başka kimseye güvenmiyorum.
I don't trust anyone apart from you.
Sütten başka bir şey almadım.
I didn't buy anything other than milk.
Common mistakes
Using the locative or dative instead of the ablative. "After the meal" is yemekten sonra, not *yemekte sonra (locative) or *yemeğe sonra (dative).
❌ Yemekte sonra kahve içtik.
Incorrect — sonra governs the ablative: yemekten.
✅ Yemekten sonra kahve içtik.
We had coffee after the meal.
Adding the ablative to a duration. "Three days ago" keeps the bare noun; *üç günden önce is wrong for "ago".
❌ Üç günden önce geldim.
Incorrect — a duration takes a bare noun: üç gün önce.
✅ Üç gün önce geldim.
I came three days ago.
Failing to harden -DAn after a voiceless consonant. It's dersten, işten, sabahtan — not *dersden, *işden, *sabahdan.
❌ İşden sonra markete uğradım.
Incorrect — ablative hardens after voiceless ş: işten.
✅ İşten sonra markete uğradım.
I stopped by the supermarket after work.
Bare noun with dolayı / beri. Unlike önce/sonra durations, these always need the ablative.
❌ Bu dolayı geç kaldık.
Incorrect — dolayı needs the ablative: bundan.
✅ Bundan dolayı geç kaldık.
Because of this, we were late.
Key takeaways
- önce, sonra, beri, dolayı/ötürü, başka govern the ablative
-DAn:dersten sonra,sabahtan beri,bundan dolayı. - The ablative hardens to -tan/-ten after voiceless consonants:
dersten,yemekten,işten,sabahtan. - önce/sonra split: ablative for an event (
yemekten sonra), but a bare time noun for a duration (üç gün önce,iki saat sonra). beri= "since" a point; pair it with an ongoing tense (sabahtan beri bekliyorum).- This family mirrors the dative postpositions (
göre,doğru,rağmen) — learn each word together with its case.
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- The Ablative -DAn: From / Out Of / ThanA1 — The ablative case -DAn marks source and origin (from, out of, off), material and cause, the partitive (some of), and — uniquely for English speakers — the standard of comparison (than).
- Before and After: önce / sonra in TimeA2 — önce 'before/ago' and sonra 'after/later' take a bare time noun for durations (iki saat sonra), the ablative for reference points (yemekten sonra), and -mAdAn önce / -DIktAn sonra for whole clauses.
- The Converb -mAdAn ('without / before')B2 — How one negative-looking converb covers both 'without doing' and, with önce, 'before doing' — so even a positive 'before' uses -mAdAn.
- Concession: rağmen, -DIğI halde, yine deB2 — How Turkish says 'although / despite' without any finite 'although' word — concession is built by nominalizing the clause: rağmen takes a dative noun or -mA clause, -DIğI halde takes the factive participle, and yine de / buna rağmen resume the main point.