teşekkür etmek and rica etmek (to thank / request) | Turkish Grammar

teşekkür etmek ("to thank") and rica etmek ("to request, to kindly ask") are two of the most important verbs for sounding polite in Turkish, and they work as a pair: a request met with a thank-you, a thank-you answered with Rica ederim. Both are etmek-compounds built from an Arabic-origin noun plus the light verb etmek, and both govern a specific case for the person involved. Master these two and you can navigate most everyday courtesy exchanges. This page covers their government, the fixed politeness formulas they live inside, and how Rica ederim came to mean "you're welcome".

teşekkür etmek — thank someone in the dative

The compound is teşekkür ("thanks, gratitude") + etmek ("to do"), literally "to do thanks". As with yardım etmek, the noun teşekkür fills the object slot, so the person you thank takes the dative -(y)A — you give thanks to them. The frame is [birine] teşekkür etmek.

Yardımın için sana çok teşekkür ederim.

Thank you very much for your help.

Bizi davet ettikleri için ev sahiplerine teşekkür ettik.

We thanked the hosts for inviting us.

Öğretmenime her şey için teşekkür etmek istiyorum.

I want to thank my teacher for everything.

Notice sana, ev sahiplerine, öğretmenime — all dative. To say what you are thankful for, Turkish uses ... için ("for"), often after a nominalized clause (ettikleri için "for the fact that they did"). The aorist is teşekkür eder, but in practice you will almost always meet it in the first person of the fixed formula below.

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The everyday "thank you" is teşekkür ederim — literally "I do thanks", the aorist first-person of teşekkür etmek. It is frozen as a formula: you say teşekkür ederim whether the favour was a moment ago or is ongoing, because the aorist here expresses a general, polite stance, not a one-time action.

The thank-you formulas, ranked by register

Turkish has a small ladder of gratitude expressions. Learn where each one sits:

Expression	Register	Rough English
Teşekkür ederim.	neutral / polite	Thank you.
Teşekkürler.	neutral, slightly lighter	Thanks.
Çok teşekkürler. / Çok teşekkür ederim.	warm, polite	Thank you very much.
Teşekkür ederiz.	polite, on behalf of a group	Thank you (from us).
Sağ ol. / Sağ olun.	informal / informal-plural-polite	Thanks (lit. "be well").
Eyvallah.	very informal, masculine-leaning	Cheers / much obliged.

Sağ ol kardeşim, çok iyi oldu.

Thanks, mate — that came at just the right time. (informal)

Geldiğiniz için hepinize çok teşekkür ederiz.

We thank you all very much for coming. (polite, group)

A key contrast: sağ ol is informal — fine with friends and peers, but you would not say it to a professor or an official. Use teşekkür ederim / teşekkür ederiz in formal settings. Sağ olun (plural/polite -un) softens it for someone you address with siz, but it still reads as more casual than teşekkür ederim.

rica etmek — request, with the person in the ablative

The second verb is rica ("request, plea") + etmek, "to do a request". Its core meaning is "to request / to kindly ask". Here the case government differs from teşekkür etmek: the person you make the request of takes the ablative -DAn ("from"), because you ask something from them. The frame is [birinden] rica etmek — "to request from someone".

Senden bir şey rica edeceğim, kırmazsın değil mi?

I'm going to ask you for something — you won't say no, will you?

Müdürden izin rica ettim ama daha cevap gelmedi.

I requested leave from the manager, but no answer has come yet.

Sizden sessiz olmanızı rica ediyoruz.

We kindly ask you to be quiet.

In that last example, what you request is a nominalized clause — sessiz olmanızı ("your being quiet"), in the accusative as the object of rica etmek, while the person sizden stays ablative. This is the polite way to make a request: ... -mAnızı rica ederim ("I kindly request that you ..."). It is markedly more courteous than a bare imperative.

Toplantıya zamanında gelmenizi rica ederim.

I kindly request that you come to the meeting on time. (formal)

Rica ederim — "you're welcome"

Here is the cultural keystone. When someone thanks you, the standard reply is Rica ederim — literally "I make a request / I beg (you)". The logic is one of modesty: by "requesting", the speaker is effectively saying "Please — it was nothing, there's no need to thank me." It is the polite, neutral "you're welcome", usable in virtually any setting.

Teşekkür ederim! — Rica ederim, ne demek.

Thank you! — You're welcome, don't mention it.

The tag Ne demek ("what do you mean / don't mention it") often follows it. Other replies you will hear: Bir şey değil ("it's nothing"), Önemli değil ("no problem"). All are interchangeable as responses to thanks; Rica ederim is the safest and most polite.

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Rica ederim has two jobs and you must read context to tell them apart. After a thank-you it means "you're welcome". At the start of an utterance — Rica ederim, biraz sessiz olur musunuz? — it means "please / I do ask you ...", a soft request. Same words, two pragmatic functions.

Compound behavior

Both verbs inflect on etmek, never on the noun. The t of et- voices to d before vowel-initial suffixes (et- + -er → eder).

Turkish	English
teşekkür ederim	I thank (you) / thank you
teşekkür etti	s/he thanked
teşekkür etmedi	s/he didn't thank
rica ediyorum	I am requesting
rica edeceğim	I will request
rica etmeyin	please don't (no need to ask)

Common mistakes

The recurring errors here are wrong-case (accusative instead of dative/ablative) and treating the compound noun as inflectable.

❌ Seni teşekkür ederim.

Incorrect — the person thanked takes the dative (sana), not the accusative (seni).

✅ Sana teşekkür ederim.

Thank you (lit. I thank you).

❌ Teşekkürüm ederim çok.

Incorrect — the noun teşekkür does not take a possessive here, and çok goes before the phrase: çok teşekkür ederim.

✅ Çok teşekkür ederim.

Thank you very much.

❌ Sana bir şey rica edeceğim.

Incorrect — rica etmek takes the ablative for the person (senden), not the dative (sana).

✅ Senden bir şey rica edeceğim.

I'm going to ask you for something.

❌ Sağ ol, hocam, çok yardımcı oldunuz.

Mismatched register — sağ ol is informal singular; to a teacher (hocam, siz) use sağ olun or, better, teşekkür ederim.

✅ Teşekkür ederim hocam, çok yardımcı oldunuz.

Thank you, sir/teacher, you were very helpful.

❌ Teşekkürler! — Hoş geldin.

Wrong reply — the answer to a thank-you is Rica ederim / Bir şey değil, not Hoş geldin ('welcome' as in greeting an arrival).

✅ Teşekkürler! — Rica ederim.

Thanks! — You're welcome.

Key takeaways

teşekkür etmek = thank someone → person in the dative (sana teşekkür ederim); the reason in ... için.
The frozen formula is teşekkür ederim ("thank you"); sağ ol is its informal counterpart.
rica etmek = request → person in the ablative (senden rica ediyorum); the polite request pattern is ... -mAnızı rica ederim.
Rica ederim means "you're welcome" in reply to thanks, and "please / I ask you" at the start of a request — context tells them apart.
Suffixes attach to etmek (which voices to ed-: eder, ediyorum); the nouns teşekkür and rica stay fixed.

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