etkilemek ("to affect, to influence, to impress") looks like a long, opaque verb to memorize — but it isn't a single block. It is the noun etki ("effect, influence") plus the productive verb-forming suffix -lA. Once you see that seam, etkilemek stops being a vocabulary item and becomes a transparent piece of grammar: etki + -le → etkile- ("to do effect to → to affect"). The real prize on this page is not one verb but the pattern. Turkish builds an enormous, open-ended class of transitive verbs by sticking -lA onto a noun or adjective, and the moment you can spot that suffix, dozens of "hard" B1–B2 verbs (temizlemek, hazırlamak, başlatmak, suçlamak, kilitlemek) decode themselves.
The seam: etki + -lA
The suffix is -lA, which means it surfaces as -la after a back vowel and -le after a front vowel (two-way vowel harmony). It attaches to a noun or adjective and turns it into a verb stem that you then conjugate completely normally. Etki ends in the front vowel i, so we get -le: etki + -le- = etkile-, and the infinitive is etkilemek.
Çocukluğunda okuduğu kitaplar onu derinden etkiledi.
The books he read in childhood affected him deeply.
Bu karar binlerce çalışanı doğrudan etkileyecek.
This decision will directly affect thousands of employees.
Notice that etkilemek takes an accusative object — onu ("him"), binlerce çalışanı ("thousands of employees"). It behaves like any ordinary transitive verb because, grammatically, that is exactly what it now is. The suffix did its work at the word-building stage; after that, conjugation and case government are completely regular.
The three meanings of etkilemek
Because etki ("effect/influence") is broad, etkilemek covers three things English keeps under separate verbs: affect, influence, and impress. Context — and usually the object — disambiguates.
1. To affect (a neutral physical or causal effect):
Soğuk hava ekinleri kötü etkiledi, hasat bu yıl düşük olacak.
The cold weather affected the crops badly; the harvest will be low this year.
2. To influence (to shape someone's views or choices):
Kararımı kimsenin etkilemesine izin vermedim.
I didn't let anyone influence my decision.
3. To impress (to make a strong, usually positive impression):
Sunumun beni gerçekten etkiledi, çok profesyoneldi.
Your presentation really impressed me; it was very professional.
For the "impress" sense, the passive etkilenmek ("to be impressed / be affected") is extremely common, often with an ablative source: -DAn etkilenmek ("to be impressed/influenced by").
Onun cesaretinden çok etkilendim.
I was very impressed by her courage.
Genç ressam İtalyan ustalarından etkilenmiş.
The young painter was apparently influenced by the Italian masters.
Key forms
All forms are regular on the stem etkile-. The only spelling point worth flagging is the -(I)yor present, where the final -e of the stem is swallowed before -iyor: etkile- + -iyor → etkiliyor (not etkileyiyor).
| Form | Turkish | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | etkilemek | to affect / influence / impress |
| Present continuous (3sg) | etkiliyor | it affects / is affecting |
| Past (3sg) | etkiledi | it affected |
| Aorist (3sg) | etkiler | it affects (habitually) |
| Future (3sg) | etkileyecek | it will affect |
| Passive (3sg) | etkilenir / etkilendi | is/was affected, impressed |
| Negative present (3sg) | etkilemiyor | it doesn't affect |
The passive deserves a note: etkile- + the passive -n- → etkilen- ("to be affected/impressed"). Because the stem ends in a vowel, the passive uses the -n- allomorph (not -Il-), which is why you get etkilenmek, not etkililmek.
The big picture: the -lA verb class
This is the section to internalize. Turkish has a small handful of dedicated verb-forming suffixes, and -lA is by far the most productive. It takes a noun or an adjective and produces a verb that means, loosely, "to do / apply / become the thing the root names." Learn to recognize it and you unlock a whole layer of the lexicon.
| Root (noun/adj) |
| Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| etki (effect) | etkilemek | to affect / influence |
| temiz (clean) | temizlemek | to clean |
| hazır (ready) | hazırlamak | to prepare |
| su (water) | sulamak | to water |
| tuz (salt) | tuzlamak | to salt |
| kilit (lock) | kilitlemek | to lock |
| suç (crime/blame) | suçlamak | to blame / accuse |
| ütü (iron) | ütülemek | to iron |
| imza (signature) | imzalamak | to sign |
Every one of these is a fully regular transitive verb taking an accusative object, exactly like etkilemek. The harmony does its usual work: back-vowel roots take -la (hazır → hazırla-, su → sula-), front-vowel roots take -le (temiz → temizle-, etki → etkile-).
Mutfağı baştan aşağı temizledim, artık tertemiz.
I cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom; it's spotless now.
Sunum için slaytları akşamdan hazırladım.
I prepared the slides for the presentation last night.
Sözleşmeyi okumadan imzalama, çok önemli.
Don't sign the contract without reading it; it's very important.
Beni boşuna suçluyorsun, o gün orada bile değildim.
You're blaming me for nothing; I wasn't even there that day.
-lA versus the causative, and the -lAndIr extension
It is worth separating -lA from two things English speakers confuse it with. First, -lA is not the causative. The causative suffix is -DIr (and friends), covered at verbs/voice-causative-dir; it takes an existing verb and adds "make someone do it." -lA, by contrast, takes a noun or adjective and creates a verb from scratch. başla- ("begin," from baş "head/start") is a -lA verb; başlat- ("to make begin, to start something," from başla- + causative -t) is its causative.
Film tam zamanında başladı.
The film started exactly on time.
Toplantıyı vaktinde başlattılar.
They started the meeting on time.
Second, there is a layered combination -lAndIr (= -lA + -n + -DIr) that builds "to cause to become X," very common in formal and technical Turkish: bilgi ("information") → bilgilendirmek ("to inform"), hava ("air") → havalandırmak ("to ventilate"), görev ("duty") → görevlendirmek ("to assign/appoint"). You don't need to build these yourself yet, but recognizing the -lA- core inside them is the same decoding skill.
Müşterileri yeni kurallar hakkında bilgilendirdik.
We informed the customers about the new rules.
English-speaker pitfalls
- "Affect" vs "effect." English speakers tie themselves in knots over affect (verb) and effect (noun). Turkish is cleaner: the noun is etki ("effect/influence") and the verb is etkilemek ("to affect"). The noun etki is what hides inside the verb.
- Don't reach for -lA when the verb already exists. -lA is productive but not infinite; many concepts have their own root verb. You clean with temizlemek, but you don't "water-verb" by inventing forms freely — stick to the established stems until a native uses a novel one.
- "Be impressed" is the passive, with an ablative. English says "impressed by." Turkish says -DAn etkilenmek — passive verb, ablative source: kitabından etkilendim ("I was impressed by his book").
Common mistakes
❌ Sunumun bana etkiledi.
Incorrect — etkilemek takes an accusative object, not a dative one; transferring 'impress to me' from English.
✅ Sunumun beni etkiledi.
Your presentation impressed me.
❌ Onun cesaretini etkilendim.
Incorrect — the passive etkilenmek takes the ablative source, not the accusative.
✅ Onun cesaretinden etkilendim.
I was impressed by her courage.
❌ Toplantıyı zamanında başladılar.
Incorrect — başlamak ('begin') is intransitive; to start something (transitive) you need the causative başlatmak.
✅ Toplantıyı zamanında başlattılar.
They started the meeting on time.
❌ Mutfağı temizliyorum ama hâlâ etkilemek.
Incorrect — etkilemek is the bare infinitive; you can't leave a verb uninflected as a finite predicate.
✅ Mutfağı temizliyorum, koku beni hâlâ etkiliyor.
I'm cleaning the kitchen, but the smell is still affecting me.
Key takeaways
- etkilemek = etki ("effect") + -lA, a transparent derived verb, not an opaque block to memorize.
- It is a regular transitive verb taking an accusative object: beni etkiledi, kararı etkiler.
- It covers affect, influence, and impress; for "be impressed/affected" use the passive etkilenmek with an ablative source: -DAn etkilenmek.
- -lA is the most productive verb-forming suffix in Turkish: temiz → temizle-, hazır → hazırla-, su → sula-, suç → suçla-. Spotting it decodes a whole class of verbs.
- -lA (noun/adj → verb) is not the causative -DIr (verb → verb). başla- is -lA; başlat- is its causative.
Now practice Turkish
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Start learning Turkish→Related Topics
- Verbs and Nouns from AdjectivesB2 — Turkish builds whole verbs out of adjectives and nouns: temiz 'clean' gives temizlemek 'to clean', güzel 'beautiful' gives güzelleşmek 'to become beautiful', and hasta 'sick' gives hastalanmak 'to fall ill' — a three-way contrast English handles with separate verbs.
- The Causative -DIr / -t / -IrB1 — How Turkish builds 'make/have someone do' with the causative suffix, which allomorph each verb takes, and how the suffix adds a new causer and demotes the old subject.
- How Turkish Builds WordsB1 — Turkish grows long words by stacking meaning-bearing derivational suffixes onto a small set of roots — göz → gözlük → gözlükçü → gözlükçülük — so learning the suffixes turns vocabulary into a system you can decode and even coin yourself.
- How to Use the Verb ReferenceA2 — How to read the Turkish verb-reference pages — stem, key forms, governed case, and the irregular-feeling details they highlight.