Deverbal Nouns: -GI, -Im, -GIç, -mAn | Turkish Grammar

The fully productive way to make a noun out of a verb in Turkish is the verbal noun in -mA / -mAk or the -(y)Iş form — those run on any verb you like (see the verbal noun in -ma). But a large slice of core Turkish vocabulary was coined by a different, older set of suffixes that are only semi-productive: you cannot freely apply them to a new verb, yet they sit inside dozens of words you use every day. The payoff of learning them is decoding power. Once you know that -gi, -im, -gıç and -men attach to verb stems, words that looked like opaque roots split open: bil-gi "knowledge" is literally "the product of bilmek to know," öğret-men "teacher" is "one who teaches." This page teaches the four most rewarding of these suffixes.

-GI: the result or instrument of a verb

The suffix -GI (with all four harmony shapes -gı / -gi / -gu / -gü, and the voiceless variants -kı / -ki / -ku / -kü after a voiceless consonant) turns a verb into a noun naming the thing the verb produces, or the instrument that performs it. It is an abstract-or-concrete result noun.

sev- "to love" → sevgi "love (the feeling)"
bil- "to know" → bilgi "knowledge, information"
sar- "to wrap, bandage" → sargı "bandage, dressing"
gör- "to see" → görgü "manners, etiquette" (literally "what one has seen / experience of the world")

Çocuğa karşı içinde tarif edilemez bir sevgi hissetti.

He felt an indescribable love toward the child.

Bu konuda hiç bilgim yok, sana yardımcı olamam.

I have no knowledge of this subject, I can't help you.

Yarayı temizledikten sonra üstüne yeni bir sargı sardılar.

After cleaning the wound they wrapped a fresh bandage over it.

Notice the spelling rule. When the verb stem ends in a voiceless consonant, the G hardens to k: bas- "to press, print" → baskı "pressure; a print run; an edition," not basgı. This is the same voicing assimilation that governs suffix-initial consonants all over the grammar, written as the archiphoneme G (it surfaces as g after a voiced sound, k after a voiceless one).

Ailesinin baskısı yüzünden o işi kabul etmek zorunda kaldı.

Because of his family's pressure he had to accept that job.

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When you meet an unfamiliar noun ending in -gı/-gi/-gu/-gü or -kı/-ki/-ku/-kü, try peeling the suffix off and reading the rest as a verb stem: sayg-ı → say- "to count/respect" → "respect"; vurg-u → vur- "to strike" → "stress, accent." You will guess the meaning right surprisingly often.

-Im: one instance or one measure of the verb

The suffix -Im (harmony shapes -ım / -im / -um / -üm; after a vowel it appears as -m) names a single occurrence, a single portion, or a measured amount of the action. Where -mA gives you the action in the abstract, -Im gives you one slice of it.

al- "to take, buy" → alım "a purchase, an acquisition; the act of taking"
öl- "to die" → ölüm "death (an instance of dying)"
seç- "to choose, elect" → seçim "election; a choice"
iç- "to drink" → içim "a sip, a draught" (the amount you swallow at once)
ek- "to sow" → ekim "sowing; October" (the sowing month)

Bu yılki seçimde ilk kez oy kullanacağım.

I'm going to vote for the first time in this year's election.

Bir içim su bile yoktu evde, çeşmeden almak zorunda kaldık.

There wasn't even a sip of water in the house, we had to fetch it from the fountain.

Şirketin bu hamlesi piyasada bir güç gösterisi, bir satın alım değil.

This move by the company is a show of strength in the market, not a buyout.

The "single measure" sense is vivid in food and drink: bir lokma uses a different root, but bir içim su "a (single) sip of water" and bir dilim ekmek "a slice of bread" (from dil- "to slice") show -Im counting out one helping. English needs a whole noun phrase — "a sip of," "a serving of" — where Turkish folds the measure into one derived noun.

-GIç: the instrument or agent that does the verb

The suffix -GIç (shapes -gıç / -giç / -guç / -güç, voiceless -kıç / -kiç / -kuç / -küç) makes a noun for the tool, device, or person characteristically engaged in the action. It overlaps with the agent suffix -CI but is far less productive and tends to produce fixed, often technical, vocabulary.

dal- "to dive" → dalgıç "diver"
süz- "to strain, filter" → süzgeç "strainer, colander, filter"
bil- "to know" → bilgiç "know-it-all" (mildly derogatory)
kıs- "to constrict" → kıskaç "pincers, clamp" (G hardens to k after the voiceless s)

Dalgıçlar batık gemiyi aramak için suya daldı.

The divers went into the water to search for the sunken ship.

Makarnayı süzgeçten geçir, suyunu iyice süzdür.

Run the pasta through the colander, drain the water off well.

Again watch the hardening: after the voiceless s of kıs-, the suffix surfaces as -kaç, giving kıskaç, never kısgaç. Because -GIç is essentially closed, treat each -GIç noun as a vocabulary item; do not try to coin new ones.

-mAn: the agent or practitioner

The suffix -mAn (shapes -man / -men) forms nouns for people defined by an activity or role, and a few for large or augmentative things. It is the suffix behind some of the most frequent person-nouns in the language.

öğret- "to teach" → öğretmen "teacher"
danış- "to consult" → danışman "consultant, advisor"
yönet- "to direct, manage" → yönetmen "(film) director" / yönetici uses -CI for "manager" — the two coexist
say- "to count, esteem" → sayman "treasurer, accountant"
eğit- "to train, educate" → eğitmen "trainer, instructor"

Lisede en sevdiğim öğretmen tarih hocamızdı.

My favorite teacher in high school was our history teacher.

Bu konuda bir mali danışmana danışmadan karar verme.

Don't decide on this without consulting a financial advisor.

Filmin yönetmeni törene gelemedi, ödülü yapımcı aldı.

The film's director couldn't make it to the ceremony, the producer accepted the award.

Two cautions. First, -mAn only has two vowel shapes (-man / -men), following two-way front/back harmony but not rounding. Second, a handful of -mAn words attach to nouns and adjectives, not verbs, and carry an augmentative tone: koca-man "huge" (from koca "big"), ata-man (historically "chief," from ata "forefather"), kara-man (a breed name). Do not assume every -mAn word hides a verb — but the high-frequency person-nouns above genuinely do.

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Turkish coined many modern professional terms with -mAn during the 20th-century language reforms (öğretmen replaced the Arabic-origin muallim). So -mAn person-nouns often have an official, institutional flavor and frequently appear on doors and business cards.

Why this matters: the verb is hiding in plain sight

For an English speaker, the instinct is to file bilgi, seçim, öğretmen and süzgeç away as flat, unanalyzable vocabulary — the way "knowledge," "election," "teacher" and "colander" feel unrelated to "know," "elect," "teach" and "strain" unless you stop and think. English does have parallel derivations (know → knowledge, govern → government), but its suffixes are borrowed from Latin and French and rarely transparent. Turkish suffixes are native and regular, so the verb inside the noun is always recoverable: strip -gi, -im, -gıç or -men, and a real, usable verb stem is staring back at you. Treating these nouns as opaque roots throws away that x-ray vision. Learn the four suffixes once, and your working vocabulary effectively doubles, because every derived noun becomes a reminder of its verb and vice versa.

These suffixes are semi-productive, not dead and not freely productive. You will not invent yürügü from yürü- "to walk" and be understood; the lists are essentially fixed. But recognizing the pattern is a comprehension tool, not a coining license — and for reading and listening, comprehension is exactly what you need.

Başlangıçta zordu ama zamanla alıştım.

It was hard at the beginning, but over time I got used to it.

This last example hides a beautiful case: başlangıç "beginning" is başla- "to begin" + -n- (reflexive) + -GIç, and after the voiced n the suffix stays -gıç. Even the connective başlangıçta "at the beginning" is, at root, a verb.

Common mistakes

❌ basgı

Incorrect — after the voiceless s of bas-, the G hardens to k: baskı.

✅ baskı

pressure; a print run / edition

❌ kısgaç

Incorrect — after voiceless s, the suffix is -kaç, not -gaç: kıskaç.

✅ kıskaç

pincers, clamp

❌ öğretmanım çok iyi

Incorrect — -mAn has no rounding harmony and front vowels give -men: öğretmenim.

✅ öğretmenim çok iyi

My teacher is very good.

❌ Bir seçme yapmam gerek.

Wrong noun for 'a choice/election' here; seçme means 'selection/audition'. Use seçim for the act/result of choosing.

✅ Bir seçim yapmam gerek.

I need to make a choice.

❌ bu konuda hiç bilgimem yok

Invented form — the deverbal noun is bilgi (-GI), not *bilgimem.

✅ bu konuda hiç bilgim yok

I have no information on this subject.

The recurring trap is memorizing these as opaque roots and then either coining a wrong derivative or missing the harmony/hardening. Keep the verb stem in view and apply the consonant rules you already know from the rest of the grammar.

Key takeaways

-GI (sevgi, bilgi, sargı, görgü) = the result or instrument of a verb; G hardens to k after a voiceless consonant (baskı, vurgu).
-Im (alım, ölüm, seçim, içim) = a single instance or measured portion of the action; English needs "a sip of / an act of."
-GIç (dalgıç, süzgeç, kıskaç, bilgiç) = the tool, device, or person that does the verb; nearly closed, learn each as vocabulary.
-mAn (öğretmen, danışman, yönetmen, sayman) = person defined by a role; only two shapes (-man / -men), often institutional in tone.
All four are semi-productive: use them to decode words, not to coin new ones. See the verbal noun in -ma for the fully productive deverbal noun, verbs and nouns from adjectives for the reverse direction, and the agent suffix -CI for the productive "doer" suffix that overlaps with -GIç and -mAn.

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