A small set of Turkish postpositions handles direction and stance — physically pointing toward something, and figuratively taking a position for or against it. The members are doğru "toward", karşı "against / facing / toward", yana "in favour of / on the side of", and the orientation sense of göre "according to". What makes them worth a page is that each one welds together a physical and an abstract meaning that English keeps in separate prepositions: karşı is at once "facing / opposite" and "against / hostile to"; yana is at once "to the side" and "in favour of". Once you see that Turkish treats taking sides as a kind of facing direction, the figurative uses stop looking arbitrary. The one thing you must lock in first is the case: doğru and karşı govern the dative -(y)A, while yana governs the ablative -DAn.
doğru — "toward" (dative)
doğru marks motion or orientation toward a goal. The complement takes the dative -(y)A: eve doğru "toward home", kapıya doğru "toward the door". With a time word it means "toward / around (a moment)": akşama doğru "toward evening".
Adam bize doğru yürümeye başlayınca biraz tedirgin olduk.
When the man started walking toward us we got a little uneasy.
Tren istasyona doğru yavaşladı ama bir türlü durmadı.
The train slowed toward the station but somehow wouldn't stop.
Akşama doğru rüzgâr şiddetlendi, balıkçılar limana döndü.
Toward evening the wind picked up and the fishermen returned to the harbour.
The directional doğru "toward" is a different word from the adjective doğru "correct / straight / true" — the dative complement and the motion context keep them apart. There is no abstract "in favour of" sense here; for that you need yana (below).
karşı — the big one: "against", "facing", "toward" (dative)
karşı is the postposition where Turkish bundles meanings English scatters. With a dative complement it covers three related ideas:
- Physical "facing / opposite": deniz*e karşı bir oda* "a room facing the sea".
- Direction "toward" (often of a force or feeling): sabaha karşı "toward dawn", bana karşı kibar "kind toward me".
- Abstract "against / opposed to": bu karar*a karşı çıkmak* "to oppose this decision".
The unifying image is orientation: you turn to face something, and turning to face it can mean welcoming it (kindness toward you) or resisting it (standing against a decision). English forces a choice between "toward" and "against"; Turkish lets karşı hold both.
Bu yeni vergi yasasına karşı binlerce kişi meydanda toplandı.
Thousands gathered in the square against the new tax law.
Çocuklara karşı çok sabırlı bir öğretmendi, hiç bağırmazdı.
She was a very patient teacher toward children; she never shouted.
Soğuğa karşı kalın bir mont, yağmura karşı da şemsiye al.
Take a thick coat against the cold and an umbrella against the rain.
The same word, the same dative case — but English needs "against", "toward", "facing", and "for (protection)" to cover the range. Watch especially the physical-facing sense, which learners forget karşı even has:
Balkonu dağa karşı olan bir ev kiraladık, manzara muhteşem.
We rented a house whose balcony faces the mountain; the view is stunning.
yana — "in favour of / on the side of" (ablative)
yana is the stance postposition, and it breaks the pattern: it governs the ablative -DAn, not the dative. senden yana is "on your side / in your favour", haklıdan yana "on the side of the one who's right". Physically yana relates to yan "side / flank", and the figurative "to take someone's side" grows straight out of that spatial root.
Tartışmada herkes susunca ben açıkça senden yana çıktım.
When everyone went quiet in the argument, I openly took your side.
Patron her zaman güçlüden yana, hiç çalışanı düşünmez.
The boss is always on the side of the powerful; he never thinks of the workers.
Bu konuda ben değişimden yanayım, eski sistem işlemiyor.
On this matter I'm in favour of change; the old system doesn't work.
Notice yanayım "I'm in favour": yana takes a copular ending to mean "to be on the side of". The ablative complement is the giveaway — senden yana, never sana yana. This is the page's main case trap: the two "toward"-ish words doğru/karşı are dative, but the "in favour of" word yana is ablative, because it conceptually pulls from a side.
göre — orientation as "according to" (dative)
göre belongs here as the epistemic member of the family: it orients a statement to a source or standard. With the dative it means "according to / in the view of" and, secondarily, "compared to / relative to": bana göre "in my opinion", yasaya göre "according to the law", geçen yıla göre "compared to last year". It shares the dative case with doğru and karşı, and the same orientation logic — you measure a claim against a reference point.
Bana göre bu fiyat fazla yüksek, başka yere bakalım.
In my opinion this price is too high; let's look elsewhere.
Son rapora göre işsizlik geçen aya göre biraz düşmüş.
According to the latest report, unemployment has fallen slightly compared to last month.
Pronouns take their irregular dative forms with the dative members: bana göre, sana karşı, ona doğru — never the genitive *benim göre. With yana they take the ablative: benden yana, senden yana.
Telling the family apart
The cleanest summary is a small table. Memorise each word with its case, because the case is the part learners get wrong, and it doesn't follow from the meaning.
| Postposition | Case | Core meaning | Abstract extension |
|---|---|---|---|
| doğru | dative -(y)A | toward (motion/time) | (none — stays directional) |
| karşı | dative -(y)A | facing / toward | against, opposed to |
| göre | dative -(y)A | according to | compared to |
| yana | ablative -DAn | to the side of | in favour of, on the side of |
Hükümete karşı çıkanlardan yana mıydın, yoksa karara göre mi karar verdin?
Were you on the side of those who opposed the government, or did you decide according to the ruling?
That one sentence stacks three of them — hükümete karşı (dative, "against the government"), çıkanlardan yana (ablative, "on the side of those who opposed"), and karara göre (dative, "according to the ruling") — and the cases stay distinct.
Common mistakes
Genitive instead of dative on karşı / doğru / göre. Transfer from the için / gibi family, where pronouns are genitive.
❌ Benim karşı bir şey demedi.
Incorrect — karşı takes the dative pronoun: bana karşı.
✅ Bana karşı bir şey demedi.
He didn't say anything against / to me.
Dative instead of ablative on yana. yana pulls from a side, so it needs the ablative.
❌ Ben sana yanayım, merak etme.
Incorrect — yana governs the ablative: senden yana.
✅ Ben senden yanayım, merak etme.
I'm on your side, don't worry.
Missing the buffer -y- on a vowel-final complement before doğru. "Toward the car" is arabaya doğru.
❌ Köpek araba doğru koştu.
Incorrect — the dative needs the buffer y: arabaya doğru.
✅ Köpek arabaya doğru koştu.
The dog ran toward the car.
Forgetting karşı can mean physical 'facing'. Learners reach for a different construction for "facing the sea".
❌ Denizi bakan bir oda istiyorum.
Awkward — for 'a room facing the sea' use denize karşı (or deniz manzaralı): denize karşı bir oda.
✅ Denize karşı bir oda istiyorum.
I'd like a room facing the sea.
Key takeaways
- doğru (dative) = "toward" — motion or time only; no abstract sense.
- karşı (dative) bundles "facing / toward / against" — the same word covers welcoming orientation and hostile opposition. Don't lock it to one English word.
- göre (dative) = "according to / compared to" — orientation to a source or standard.
- yana is the odd one: ablative
-DAn, meaning "in favour of / on the side of" (senden yana). - The recurring error is case: doğru / karşı / göre take the dative, yana takes the ablative. Learn each postposition together with its case, as one unit.
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Start learning Turkish→Related Topics
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- Spatial Relations as Postpositional NounsB1 — Why üstünde, altında, önünde and other Turkish spatial relations are possessed nouns in izafet — and how the genitive possessor plus a case ending builds every spatial phrase.
- The Dative -(y)A: To / Into / ForA1 — The dative case -(y)A marks goal and direction (to, into, onto), the indirect object, and the complement of the many Turkish verbs and postpositions that lexically demand it.
- Contrast: ama, ise, oysa, halbukiB2 — Four ways to mark contrast in Turkish — plain ama 'but', the clitic topic-contraster ise 'as for/whereas', and oysa/halbuki for counter-expectation 'but in fact' — and how to choose the one that says exactly what you mean.