The reciprocal suffix -Iş is the partner of the reflexive -In: where the reflexive folds an action back onto a single subject, the reciprocal spreads it across two or more subjects who do it to one another — or simply together. görüşmek "to meet / see one another", mektuplaşmak "to correspond", dövüşmek "to fight (each other)". This page covers what -Iş means, why so many everyday verbs secretly contain it, and how it relates to the productive pronoun birbiri. It is part of the broader system of Turkish voice.
Two meanings: "to each other" and "together"
-Iş covers a wider range than English "each other". It has two related senses, and many verbs sit on the boundary:
- True reciprocity — A does it to B and B does it to A: görüşmek "see one another", dövüşmek "fight each other", anlaşmak "come to an understanding (with each other)".
- Joint / collective action — several people do the same thing together, not necessarily to each other: gülüşmek "laugh together", bağrışmak "all shout at once".
| Base verb | Reciprocal | English |
|---|---|---|
| gör- (see) | görüşmek | to meet, see one another, consult |
| döv- (beat) | dövüşmek | to fight each other |
| anla- (understand) | anlaşmak | to agree, come to terms |
| mektup (letter, noun) | mektuplaşmak | to correspond by letter |
Yarın saat üçte ofiste görüşelim.
Let's meet at the office at three tomorrow.
Fiyat konusunda satıcıyla anlaştık.
We came to an agreement with the seller on the price.
Çocuklar bahçede dövüşmeye başlayınca araya girdim.
When the kids started fighting in the garden, I stepped in.
Note mektuplaşmak: -Iş attaches not only to verbs but to the noun mektup (often via -laş-) to coin "do this together" verbs — mektuplaşmak "exchange letters", selamlaşmak "exchange greetings". The collective sense is what lets a noun base work here.
Form: four-way harmony, -ş after a vowel
The suffix is -Iş, harmonising four ways — -ış / -iş / -uş / -üş — and reducing to bare -ş after a vowel-final stem.
| Stem ends in… | Suffix shape | Example |
|---|---|---|
| consonant | -ış/-iş/-uş/-üş | bak- → bakış-, gül- → gülüş- |
| vowel | -ş | anla- → anlaş-, tanı- → tanış- |
Göz göze bakıştılar ama hiçbir şey söylemediler.
They exchanged glances but said nothing.
Komik fıkrayı duyunca hep birlikte gülüştük.
When we heard the funny joke, we all laughed together.
Many high-frequency verbs are lexicalised -Iş forms
Here is the practical reality every learner runs into: a large number of the most common Turkish verbs are historically reciprocal -Iş forms whose reciprocity has faded or lexicalised. You meet them first as plain vocabulary, long before you learn the suffix, and only later notice the -ş inside them.
- konuşmak "to speak/talk" — once "exchange words", now just "speak", even of one person.
- tanışmak "to get acquainted, to meet (for the first time)" — from tanı- "know"; inherently mutual, you cannot tanışmak alone.
- buluşmak "to meet up (by arrangement)" — from bul- "find".
- kavuşmak "to be reunited with" — from a root meaning "join".
Geçen yaz bir düğünde tanıştık.
We met at a wedding last summer.
Akşam yedide sinemanın önünde buluşalım.
Let's meet up in front of the cinema at seven.
Telefonda yarım saat konuştuk.
We talked on the phone for half an hour.
Because these are lexicalised, treat them as dictionary entries: konuşmak simply means "speak", and nobody parses a live "with each other" out of it. tanışmak, by contrast, keeps its mutual core — it always takes (at least) two people. Greeting and parting verbs are a tidy reciprocal family worth memorising as a set.
| Reciprocal | From | English |
|---|---|---|
| tanışmak | tanı- (know) | to get acquainted |
| selamlaşmak | selamla- (greet) | to greet one another |
| kucaklaşmak | kucakla- (embrace) | to hug one another |
| vedalaşmak | veda (farewell) | to say goodbye to each other |
Havaalanında uzun uzun kucaklaştık.
We embraced for a long while at the airport.
Gitmeden önce herkesle tek tek vedalaştı.
Before leaving, she said goodbye to everyone one by one.
Reciprocal suffix vs. birbiri: which one?
As with the reflexive, Turkish has both a suffix and a productive pronoun, and they split the work:
- The suffix -Iş is for the lexicalised, idiomatic reciprocals — görüşmek, tanışmak, anlaşmak, kucaklaşmak. These are simply the words for those mutual actions, and using birbiri instead sounds clumsy or wrong: "We met" is tanıştık, not birbirimizi tanıdık (which means "we knew each other already").
- The pronoun birbiri(ni) "each other" is the productive option for verbs that have no reciprocal -Iş form, and for spelling out exactly who-does-what-to-whom.
Düğünde tanıştık.
We met (got acquainted) at the wedding.
Birbirimize hediye aldık.
We bought each other gifts.
Birbirlerini yıllardır görmemişlerdi.
They hadn't seen each other in years.
There is a real meaning difference, not just a stylistic one. görüştük (suffix) means "we met / had a meeting"; birbirimizi gördük (pronoun) means "we caught sight of each other". anlaştık (suffix) means "we reached an agreement"; birbirimizi anladık (pronoun) means "we understood one another". Reaching for birbiri where a lexicalised reciprocal is idiomatic is a common transfer error from English, which has no reciprocal morphology and must always say "each other".
Common mistakes
❌ Düğünde birbirimizi tanıdık.
Wrong meaning — this says 'we already knew each other', not 'we met'
✅ Düğünde tanıştık.
We met (got acquainted) at the wedding.
"To meet for the first time" is the lexicalised reciprocal tanışmak; birbirini tanımak means "to know each other (already)".
❌ Yarın seninle birbirimizi göreceğiz.
Off — for arranging to meet, Turkish uses görüşmek
✅ Yarın seninle görüşeceğiz.
We'll meet (talk/see each other) tomorrow.
For meeting up or being in touch, the verb is görüşmek; birbirimizi görmek is "catch sight of each other", a different idea.
❌ Satıcıyla fiyatı birbirimizi anladık.
Incorrect — 'reach an agreement' is anlaşmak; the case marking is also wrong
✅ Satıcıyla fiyat konusunda anlaştık.
We came to an agreement with the seller on the price.
"Come to terms" is the reciprocal anlaşmak; birbirini anlamak means "understand one another (emotionally)".
❌ Havaalanında birbirimizi kucakladık.
Stilted — the idiomatic verb is kucaklaşmak
✅ Havaalanında kucaklaştık.
We hugged at the airport.
When two people embrace mutually, the natural verb is kucaklaşmak; the birbiri version is heavy and rarely used here.
Key takeaways
- -Iş builds verbs meaning "to each other" (görüşmek, dövüşmek, anlaşmak) or "together" (gülüşmek, bağrışmak) — broader than English "each other".
- It harmonises four ways (-ış/-iş/-uş/-üş) and surfaces as bare -ş after a vowel (anlaşmak, tanışmak).
- Many high-frequency verbs are lexicalised -Iş forms — konuşmak "speak", buluşmak "meet up" — learned as vocabulary, their reciprocity faded.
- A core mutual set is worth memorising: tanışmak, selamlaşmak, kucaklaşmak, vedalaşmak, mektuplaşmak.
- For verbs with no reciprocal form, or to spell out the participants, use the productive birbiri(ni).
- It mirrors the reflexive -In; learn the two suffixes as a matched pair.
Now practice Turkish
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Turkish→Related Topics
- Reciprocal birbiri 'each other'B1 — birbiri 'each other' takes a possessive that matches the subject's person, then a case ending — biz → birbirimizi, siz → birbirinizi — a layering English's invariant 'each other' never shows.
- The Reflexive -InB2 — How the suffix -In turns a verb back on its own subject (yıkanmak 'wash oneself', giyinmek 'get dressed'), and when to use it instead of the productive kendi(ni) reflexive.
- Voice: Passive, Causative, Reflexive, ReciprocalB1 — The four voice suffixes that sit between stem and tense, how each reshapes a verb's arguments, and how they stack in a fixed order.
- etmek and olmak: The Light-Verb PairA2 — How Turkish builds hundreds of verbs by pairing a noun with etmek (transitive 'do/make') or olmak (intransitive 'become/be'), including fused spellings and the transitive/intransitive twin pattern.