korkmak "to be afraid / to fear" is the single best verb for learning how Turkish handles emotions, because it makes the underlying logic visible: you are afraid from something. The feared thing goes in the ablative case — köpekten korkuyorum "I'm afraid of dogs," literally "I'm afraid from dogs." English uses "of," which gives no clue; Turkish uses -DAn, the same ending that means "from a place," and that ending is the key to a whole family of emotion verbs. Once you see fear as something that comes from a source, you can predict the case for hoşlanmak "enjoy," nefret etmek "hate," and utanmak "be ashamed" — they all govern the ablative for the same reason. This page makes korkmak the model and then generalises.
The core pattern: fear FROM the ablative source
The thing you fear is the source of the fear, so it carries the ablative -DAn (-den / -dan / -ten / -tan, harmonising and devoicing after voiceless consonants). This is exactly the "source / from" use of the ablative described on the ablative case page — Turkish simply extends "motion away from" to "emotion arising from."
Küçükken karanlıktan çok korkardım.
When I was little I was very afraid of the dark.
Yüksekten korkuyorum, o yüzden teleferiğe binmem.
I'm afraid of heights, so I won't get on the cable car.
Köpekten korkma, ısırmaz.
Don't be afraid of the dog — it won't bite.
Look at the endings: karanlık-tan (after voiceless k, the ablative devoices to -tan), yüksek-ten, köpek-ten. The case is doing semantic work — it labels the dog, the dark, the height as the origin of the feeling. Memorise the verb as a unit: korkmak -DAn, the way the verbs-with-cases page recommends welding every verb to its case.
Fearing to do something: -mAktAn korkmak
To say you are afraid to do something, or afraid of doing something, Turkish nominalizes the action with the infinitive -mAk and then puts that into the ablative: -mAktAn korkmak. The logic holds — the action is the source of the fear, so it goes in the ablative just like a noun would.
Hata yapmaktan korkma, herkes yapıyor.
Don't be afraid of making mistakes — everyone does.
Yalnız kalmaktan korkuyorum.
I'm afraid of being left alone.
Doğruyu söylemekten korkmamalısın.
You shouldn't be afraid to tell the truth.
The breakdown is transparent: yap-mak "to do" → yap-mak-tan "from doing" → yapmaktan korkma "don't be afraid of doing." You can also fear that something will happen, using a future -(y)AcAK complement in the ablative: geç kalacağımdan korkuyorum "I'm afraid I'll be late." Both routes keep the ablative because both keep the "fear from a source" logic intact.
The wider family: emotion + ablative source
korkmak is the headline member of a group of emotion verbs that all govern the ablative because the emotion has a source. Learning them together is efficient: one case, one logic, four high-frequency verbs.
| Verb | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| korkmak | to be afraid (of) | yılandan korkuyorum — I'm afraid of snakes |
| hoşlanmak | to enjoy / like / fancy | senden hoşlanıyorum — I'm into you |
| nefret etmek | to hate | yalandan nefret ederim — I hate lying |
| utanmak | to be ashamed / shy (of) | yaptığından utanmalı — he should be ashamed of what he did |
Soğuk sudan hoşlanmam, ben sıcak severim.
I don't enjoy cold water — I like it warm.
Bağırıp çağırmaktan nefret ediyorum.
I hate all the shouting and yelling.
The connection to liking verbs is direct: hoşlanmak appears on the beğenmek and sevmek page as the ablative member of the "like / love" family. Fear and enjoyment turn out to share their grammar — both treat the trigger as a source you take the feeling from. For the full inventory of what the ablative covers, see uses of the ablative.
korkutmak — the causative "to frighten / scare"
To say you frighten or scare someone — make them afraid — Turkish causativises korkmak with -(I)t- → korkutmak. This flips the roles: the person who gets scared becomes the accusative object, because korkutmak is now a transitive verb of doing-something-to-someone.
Aniden bağırma, beni korkuttun!
Don't shout suddenly — you scared me!
Bu film çocukları korkutabilir.
This film might frighten the children.
The contrast is clean and worth holding onto: köpekten korkuyorum "I'm afraid of the dog" (ablative source) versus köpek beni korkuttu "the dog scared me" (accusative victim). One verb is about having the feeling; the other is about causing it. The aorist of the causative is regular: korkutur "scares." There is also a derived noun korku "fear" (korku filmi "horror film") and the adjective korkunç "terrifying, horrible" — both extremely common.
Aorist and other forms
korkmak is fully regular in the aorist: korkarım / korkar "I'm afraid / he's afraid (in general)." The aorist korkarım often softens a statement into "I'm afraid (that)…" much like English — korkarım geç kaldık "I'm afraid we're late." The negative aorist korkmam "I'm not afraid (of it)" is a flat declaration of nerve.
Ben hiçbir şeyden korkmam.
I'm not afraid of anything.
Korkarım sana kötü bir haberim var.
I'm afraid I have some bad news for you.
Common mistakes
❌ Köpeği korkuyorum.
Incorrect — korkmak takes the ablative, not the accusative: köpekten.
✅ Köpekten korkuyorum.
I'm afraid of dogs.
❌ Karanlığa korkma.
Incorrect — fear is FROM its source (ablative), not dative: karanlıktan.
✅ Karanlıktan korkma.
Don't be afraid of the dark.
❌ Hata yapmayı korkma.
Incorrect — 'afraid of doing' uses the infinitive in the ablative: yapmaktan.
✅ Hata yapmaktan korkma.
Don't be afraid of making mistakes.
❌ Bu film benden korkuttu.
Incorrect — korkutmak makes its victim accusative, not ablative: beni korkuttu.
✅ Bu film beni korkuttu.
This film scared me.
❌ Yılandan nefret ederim ama farelerden korkmuyorum yılanı.
Incorrect — keep the ablative on the feared noun: yılandan korkmuyorum, not the accusative yılanı.
✅ Yılandan nefret ederim ama yılandan korkmuyorum.
I hate snakes but I'm not afraid of them.
Key takeaways
- korkmak governs the ablative -DAn: the feared thing is the source of the fear. Translate English "afraid of" as "afraid from" and the case follows automatically.
- "Afraid of doing X" is X-mAktAn korkmak — the infinitive itself goes into the ablative.
- korkmak heads a family of emotion + ablative source verbs: hoşlanmak (enjoy), nefret etmek (hate), utanmak (be ashamed). One case, one logic, four verbs.
- The causative korkutmak "to frighten" flips the frame: the person scared becomes the accusative object (beni korkuttu).
- Aorist korkarım doubles as the polite softener "I'm afraid (that)…"; the noun is korku "fear," the adjective korkunç "terrifying."
Now practice Turkish
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Start learning Turkish→Related Topics
- 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).
- When to Use the AblativeB1 — The five jobs of the ablative -DAn — source, material/cause, comparison 'than', partitive, and verb-selected complements like korkmak and hoşlanmak.
- Verbs and the Cases They GovernB1 — Common Turkish verbs grouped by the case they force on their object — accusative, dative, ablative, locative — and why English prepositions can't predict them.
- Liking and Loving: A ReferenceB1 — The full Turkish family of liking and loving — sevmek, beğenmek, hoşlanmak, bayılmak and the hoşuma gitmek idiom — each with its required case.