koymak and bırakmak (to put and to leave/let) | Turkish Grammar

These two verbs are the workhorses of placement and release. koymak "to put / place" sets a thing down somewhere — and the somewhere drives its grammar. bırakmak is one of Turkish's most semantically generous verbs: leave behind, let / allow, quit, drop off, stop doing. Its standout feature is the phasal pattern X-mAyI bırakmak "to stop doing X," and the "let him" clause bırak gitsin. Together they cover an enormous amount of daily speech, and each hinges on getting the complement right.

koymak: placement and the dative goal

When you put something down, there are two participants besides the actor: the thing placed (the direct object, accusative if definite) and the place it goes. With koymak, that place is normally a goal, so it takes the dative (-A) — you are moving the object to a destination.

Anahtarları masaya koy, yoksa yine kaybedersin.

Put the keys on the table, or you'll lose them again.

Sütü buzdolabına koymayı unutma.

Don't forget to put the milk in the fridge.

Kitapları rafa koyduktan sonra biraz dinlendim.

After putting the books on the shelf, I rested a little.

Note that English chops this up with on, in, onto — masaya (on the table), buzdolabına (in the fridge), rafa (on the shelf) — but Turkish uses one dative for all of them, because in each case the object moves to that place. The destination of placement is a goal; goals take the dative.

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The dative on the destination is the heart of koymak. The English preposition (on / in / into) is irrelevant — if you are putting something somewhere, the somewhere is the goal and takes -A. Reserve the locative -DA for where the thing simply is (masada duruyor "it's sitting on the table"), not where you put it.

For the relationship between koymak and the "keep / hold" verb tutmak, and the locative "it stays put" sense, see koymak and tutmak.

bırakmak: one verb, a constellation of meanings

bırakmak takes an accusative object (a definite one) and spreads across several related senses, all built on the idea of letting go.

1. Leave behind / leave something somewhere

Çantamı otobüste bıraktım, çok aptalım.

I left my bag on the bus, I'm such an idiot.

Çocukları okula bırakıp işe gittim.

I dropped the kids off at school and went to work.

Notice the second one: "drop someone off at a place" uses the dative goal (okula), just like koymak — because dropping off is also a kind of placement.

2. Quit / give up

This is where bırakmak diverges sharply from English "leave." You bırak- a job, a habit, a vice — you quit it. The object is accusative.

İşi bıraktı ve kendi şirketini kurdu.

He quit the job and founded his own company.

Babam yıllar önce sigarayı bıraktı.

My dad gave up cigarettes years ago.

3. Let / allow — with a clause, not an object

In the "let / allow" sense, bırakmak does not take a noun object plus an infinitive (the English pattern "let him go"). Instead it heads a small clause where the second verb appears in the optative/3rd-person imperative: bırak gitsin "let him go," bırak konuşsun "let him speak."

Bırak söylesin, hep ona engel oluyorsun.

Let her speak, you're always cutting her off.

Ağlıyorsa bırak ağlasın, rahatlar.

If he's crying, let him cry, he'll feel better.

This two-clause shape ("bırak" + a fully conjugated wish-verb) has no direct English equivalent; English packs it into one clause ("let him cry"). Turkish keeps two verbs, the second carrying its own 3rd-person ending.

The phasal pattern: -mAyI bırakmak "to stop doing"

This is the single most useful structure on the page. To say "stop / quit doing X," you put X into the verbal noun in -mA, mark it accusative (-yI), and follow with bırakmak: X-mAyI bırakmak. Literally, "to leave the doing of X."

Sonunda tırnaklarını yemeyi bıraktı.

She finally stopped biting her nails.

Geç kalmayı bırak, herkes seni bekliyor.

Stop being late, everyone is waiting for you.

Onu aramayı bıraktım çünkü hiç cevap vermiyordu.

I stopped calling him because he never answered.

The pieces are: yemek → yeme → yemeyi; aramak → arama → aramayı. The -mA verbal noun nominalizes the action, the accusative -yI makes it the definite object of bırakmak, and the whole thing means "quit the activity." This is a phasal construction — it marks the cessation of an action, parallel to -mAyA başlamak "begin to do." See serial and phasal verbs and the verbal noun in -ma.

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"Stop doing X" = X-mAyI bırakmak (verbal noun + accusative + bırakmak). Don't confuse it with durmak "to stop (moving)" or durdurmak "to halt something." For ceasing an activity you do habitually, bırakmak is the natural verb: içmeyi bıraktım "I stopped drinking."

The aorist: koyar and bırakır

Both are regular. koymak ends in a vowel and takes the aorist -r: koyar. bırakmak is polysyllabic ending in a consonant and takes -ır: bırakır. These appear constantly in polite requests via the question form — koyar mısın? "would you put?", bırakır mısın? "would you leave / let?".

Person	koymak (aorist)	bırakmak (aorist)
ben	koyarım	bırakırım
sen	koyarsın	bırakırsın
o	koyar	bırakır
biz	koyarız	bırakırız
siz	koyarsınız	bırakırsınız
onlar	koyarlar	bırakırlar

Kalemleri masaya koyar mısın?

Could you put the pens on the table?

Beni şurada bırakır mısın, geri kalanı yürürüm.

Could you drop me off here, I'll walk the rest?

Common mistakes

The traps are the dative goal of koymak, the verbal-noun accusative in the phasal pattern, and the clause structure of "let":

❌ Anahtarları masada koydum.

Incorrect — placement is a goal, so the destination takes the dative -A, not the locative -DA.

✅ Anahtarları masaya koydum.

I put the keys on the table.

❌ Sigara içmek bıraktım.

Incorrect — 'stop doing' needs the verbal noun in -mA marked accusative: içmeyi.

✅ Sigara içmeyi bıraktım.

I stopped smoking.

❌ Onu gitmek bıraktım.

Incorrect — for 'let him go' use a clause with the wish-verb: bırak gitsin.

✅ Bırak gitsin.

Let him go.

❌ İşi durdurdum ve taşındım.

Incorrect if you mean you quit your job — durdurmak is 'halt something'; quitting a job is işi bıraktım.

✅ İşi bıraktım ve taşındım.

I quit the job and moved.

The themes to drill: with koymak, the place you put something is a dative goal; with bırakmak, "stop doing X" is X-mAyI bırakmak, and "let someone do X" is the two-verb clause bırak (X)-sın.

Key takeaways

koymak "put / place": the destination is a dative goal (masaya, buzdolabına), not a locative.
bırakmak is broad: leave behind / drop off (dative goal for a person dropped off), quit / give up (accusative object: işi, sigarayı), and let / allow.
"Let someone do X" = bırak
- a 3rd-person wish-verb clause: bırak gitsin, bırak konuşsun — two verbs, not one.
The phasal X-mAyI bırakmak = "stop doing X" (verbal noun -mA
- accusative + bırakmak), the mirror of -mAyA başlamak "begin to do."
Aorists: koyar, bırakır — frequent in polite requests (koyar mısın?, bırakır mısın?).

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