When you open a Turkish cookbook, a printed appliance manual, or the back of a shampoo bottle, you meet a verb form that surprises English speakers: the procedure is not addressed to "you" at all. Instead of chop the onion, the page says soğan doğranır — literally "the onion is chopped." Turkish procedural writing uses the impersonal passive in the aorist, presenting each step as a thing that simply gets done, with no agent named. This page teaches that register, contrasts it with the casual imperative recipes that real people speak aloud, and shows you how to sequence steps.
Why the passive, not "you"?
A written recipe or manual is a generic, timeless statement of procedure. It is not a command aimed at one reader on one afternoon; it describes what one does whenever this dish is made or this device is operated. Turkish has a dedicated tool for that timeless-generic meaning — the aorist — and a dedicated tool for removing the agent — the passive. Stack them and you get the procedural register: the action floats free of any person.
English reaches for you (or the bare imperative chop), and it can also use the passive ("the onion is chopped"), but English passives in recipes sound stiff and bureaucratic. In Turkish the impersonal-passive aorist is the neutral, expected way to write a step. It is not stiff; it is simply what a recipe sounds like.
The passive is built with -Il- or -In- on the verb stem, and the aorist adds -Ir / -Ar / -r with the third-person ending (here, zero). So:
- doğra-mak (to chop) → doğra-n-ır → doğranır ("is chopped")
- karıştır-mak (to mix) → karıştır-ıl-ır → karıştırılır ("is mixed")
- ekle-mek (to add) → ekle-n-ir → eklenir ("is added")
- pişir-mek (to cook) → pişir-il-ir → pişirilir ("is cooked")
Soğan ince ince doğranır ve tereyağında kavrulur.
The onion is finely chopped and sautéed in butter.
Un yavaş yavaş eklenir, topaklanmaması için sürekli karıştırılır.
The flour is added slowly and stirred constantly so it doesn't form lumps.
Hamur yarım saat dinlendirilir, sonra fırına verilir.
The dough is rested for half an hour, then put in the oven.
Notice that the subject of each clause is the thing acted on (soğan, un, hamur), in its plain nominative form. There is no "by someone." That absence is the whole point: the procedure belongs to no one and to everyone.
A full recipe step sequence
Here is a short procedure written the way a Turkish recipe site or cookbook actually writes it. Read how every verb lands on -Ir / -İr / -Ur after a passive stem.
Önce kuru fasulye bir gece önceden suya konur ve sabah suyu süzülür.
First the dried beans are soaked in water the night before, and in the morning the water is drained.
Tencereye yağ konur, doğranmış soğan ilave edilir ve pembeleşene kadar kavrulur.
Oil is put in the pot, the chopped onion is added, and it is sautéed until golden.
Salça eklenir, biraz kavrulduktan sonra fasulye ve sıcak su ilave edilir.
Tomato paste is added, and after it has cooked a little, the beans and hot water are added.
Kısık ateşte fasulyeler yumuşayana kadar pişirilir, en son tuz atılır ve sıcak servis edilir.
It is cooked over low heat until the beans soften; finally salt is added and it is served hot.
Two things to absorb here. First, ilave edilir / servis edilir / takip edilir — verbs built on the helper etmek passivize as edilir, an extremely common shape in this register. Second, look at how the steps are glued together.
Sequencing the steps
Procedural writing needs ordering words. The core trio is:
| Turkish | English | Position in the procedure |
|---|---|---|
| önce / ilk önce | first / first of all | opening step |
| sonra / daha sonra | then / afterwards | middle steps |
| en son / son olarak | last / finally | closing step |
Between steps that simply pile up, Turkish leans on ve ("and") and the converb -Ip ("and then, having done"), which keeps the procedure tight without repeating the subject.
Önce yumurtalar kırılır, sonra şeker eklenip iyice çırpılır.
First the eggs are cracked, then sugar is added and it is whisked well.
Sebzeler yıkanır, doğranır ve haşlanır; en son zeytinyağı gezdirilir.
The vegetables are washed, chopped, and boiled; finally olive oil is drizzled over.
The connector -Ip here (eklen-ip) carries "and then" while letting the next verb supply the final passive-aorist shape (çırpılır). This is the natural rhythm of a Turkish recipe.
A manual / appliance instruction
The same register runs through manuals, safety cards, and official procedures — anywhere a step is described impersonally. Often the modal -mAlIdIr ("must / should be") or the future -AcAktIr appears for stronger requirements.
Cihaz çalıştırılmadan önce su haznesi doldurulur ve kapak sıkıca kapatılır.
Before the device is switched on, the water tank is filled and the lid is closed tightly.
Filtre ayda bir kez çıkarılır, ılık suyla yıkanır ve yerine takılır.
The filter is removed once a month, washed with warm water, and put back in place.
Arıza durumunda cihaz fişten çekilmeli ve yetkili servise başvurulmalıdır.
In case of a malfunction, the device must be unplugged and an authorised service must be contacted.
The casual alternative: 2sg imperative
Real people talking through a recipe — a parent on the phone, a friend texting you, a chatty cooking video — usually drop the impersonal passive and just give commands, in the singular imperative. This is warm, immediate, and informal.
Soğanı doğra, yağda kavur, sonra salçayı ekle, biraz karıştır.
Chop the onion, fry it in oil, then add the tomato paste, stir a bit. (informal, spoken)
Hamuru yarım saat dinlendir, sonra fırına ver — gerisi kolay.
Rest the dough for half an hour, then put it in the oven — the rest is easy. (informal, spoken)
A friendlier middle register uses the plural / polite imperative -In (doğrayın, ekleyin), common on blog-style recipe sites that want to feel personal but polite.
Soğanı ince ince doğrayın ve tereyağında kavurun.
Chop the onion finely and sauté it in butter. (informal-polite, addressing the reader)
Common mistakes
❌ Sen soğanı doğranır.
Incorrect — you cannot pair 'sen' with the impersonal passive; the agentless form takes no subject pronoun.
✅ Soğan doğranır.
The onion is chopped. (standard recipe register)
English speakers, reaching for you chop, sometimes glue sen onto the passive. The impersonal passive exists precisely to delete the agent — adding sen contradicts it. Either use the agentless passive (doğranır) or switch fully to the imperative (sen doğra → just doğra).
❌ Soğan doğranıyor, sonra kavruluyor.
Incorrect register — the -yor present makes a cookbook step sound like a live commentary, 'the onion is being chopped right now'.
✅ Soğan doğranır, sonra kavrulur.
The onion is chopped, then sautéed. (timeless procedural aorist)
Recipes use the aorist (-Ir), the generic-timeless tense, not the progressive (-yor). The progressive narrates a single ongoing event; you'd use it for a live demo voice-over, not a written step.
❌ Soğan doğrar.
Incorrect — this means 'the onion chops (something)', active; the onion is the one doing the chopping.
✅ Soğan doğranır.
The onion is chopped. (passive — the onion undergoes the action)
Dropping the passive -n-/-Il- flips the meaning: doğrar is active ("chops"), doğranır is passive ("is chopped"). The passive infix is load-bearing.
❌ Önce ekle salçayı, sonra karıştır.
Incorrect word order — the imperative verb should not jump ahead of its object in neutral speech.
✅ Önce salçayı ekle, sonra karıştır.
First add the tomato paste, then stir. (informal, natural word order)
Even in the casual imperative, Turkish keeps the object before the verb (salçayı ekle, not ekle salçayı). Verb-final order is the default; fronting the verb sounds like an afterthought or an emphatic exclamation.
Key takeaways
- Written recipes and manuals use the impersonal-passive aorist: doğranır, eklenir, karıştırılır, pişirilir — the step "gets done," with no agent.
- Build it as stem + passive (-Il-/-In-) + aorist (-Ir/-Ar) + 3rd person; etmek compounds become edilir.
- Sequence with önce … sonra … en son, and chain steps with ve and the converb -Ip.
- Never attach sen to the impersonal passive; if you want "you," switch to the imperative (doğra) or polite imperative (doğrayın).
- Use the aorist, not the -yor progressive — the procedure is timeless, not a live event.
- Spoken, intimate recipes drop all of this and just give singular commands: doğra, kavur, ekle, karıştır.
Now practice Turkish
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Start learning Turkish→Related Topics
- Impersonal and Generic StatementsB2 — How Turkish says 'one', 'you', or 'people in general' — chiefly through the impersonal passive of intransitive verbs.
- Generics, Rules, and InstructionsB2 — How Turkish states general truths, public rules, and how-to instructions — overwhelmingly with the aorist and the impersonal passive, almost never with 'you'.
- The Aorist -(A/I)r: Habitual and GeneralA2 — How to form the Turkish aorist and why it covers habits, general truths, and polite offers rather than the present moment.
- Sequencing: sonra, ayrıca, ondan sonra, üstelikB1 — Text-organizing connectives that order and stack points in Turkish — then, besides, moreover, first of all, finally — and why üstelik adds attitude that neutral ayrıca does not.