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Breakdown of Kırtasiye sabah kapalı, öğleden sonra açık.
olmak
to be
sabah
morning
açık
open
kapalı
closed
öğleden sonra
afternoon
kırtasiye
the stationery store
Questions & Answers about Kırtasiye sabah kapalı, öğleden sonra açık.
Where is the verb is in this sentence? It looks like there’s no verb.
Turkish often drops the verb to be in the simple present for third person. So Kırtasiye sabah kapalı literally reads as “stationery shop morning closed,” with the link “is” understood. Likewise, öğleden sonra açık = “after noon open.” To explicitly show tense or formality, Turkish uses suffixes or the verb olmak (to be/to become).
Do I need to add -dır (as in kapalıdır/açıktır)?
No. -dır/-dir/-dur/-dür is optional and adds formality or an “as-a-matter-of-fact” tone. A sign or casual statement typically omits it: Kırtasiye sabah kapalı, öğleden sonra açık. A more formal version is: Kırtasiye sabah kapalıdır, öğleden sonra açıktır.
Should it be sabahları instead of sabah for a regular schedule?
- sabah can function like “in the morning,” and on signs it naturally conveys a general schedule.
- sabahları explicitly means “in the mornings” (habitual).
Both are fine; sabahları makes the habitual meaning unmistakable: Kırtasiye sabahları kapalı, öğleden sonraları açık.
What exactly does öğleden sonra mean, and why that form?
It’s a postpositional phrase:
- öğle = noon
- -den = ablative “from” (with vowel harmony)
- sonra = after
Together: öğleden sonra = “after noon,” i.e., “in the afternoon.” By the same pattern, öğleden önce = “before noon.”
Can I change the word order, like Sabah kırtasiye kapalı?
Yes. Time expressions are flexible:
- Sabah kırtasiye kapalı, öğleden sonra açık.
- Kırtasiye öğleden sonra açık, sabah kapalı.
- Öğleden sonra açık, sabah kapalı kırtasiye. (less common, poetic/emphatic) Word order mainly affects emphasis; meaning stays the same.
Do I need ve or ama between the two halves, or is the comma enough?
The comma is natural for short, balanced statements. If you want to highlight contrast, add ama: Kırtasiye sabah kapalı, ama öğleden sonra açık. Using ve (“and”) is possible but less natural here because the two halves contrast rather than simply add.
What does kırtasiye refer to here—supplies or the shop?
In everyday Turkish, kırtasiye commonly means a stationery shop (or the stationery section of a store). It can also mean stationery as a mass noun depending on context. In this sentence, it’s understood as “the stationery shop.”
Are kapalı and açık adjectives or verbs? Can I use olmak?
They’re adjectives (“closed,” “open”) used as predicates without a separate “to be.” For tense/aspect or eventfulness you can use olmak:
- Habitual: Sabah kapalı olur, öğleden sonra açık olur.
- Future: Yarın sabah kapalı olacak, öğleden sonra açık olacak.
- Past: Dün sabah kapalıydı, öğleden sonra açıktı.
How can I say it from the shop’s point of view with personal endings?
Use predicate adjectives with personal suffixes:
- Sabah kapalıyız, öğleden sonra açığız. (We are closed in the morning; we’re open in the afternoon.) For a single speaker (less common in this context): kapalıyım/açığım.
How do I put this in the past or future without switching to olmak?
You can add tense directly to the predicate adjectives:
- Past: Kırtasiye sabah kapalıydı, öğleden sonra açıktı.
- Reported past: Kırtasiye sabah kapalıymış, öğleden sonra açıkmış.
- With certainty/formality: Kırtasiye sabah kapalıdır, öğleden sonra açıktır.
Pronunciation help: what about the special letters here?
- ı (in kırtasiye, açık): a back, unrounded vowel; think the a in sofa (unstressed) but further back.
- ö (in öğleden): like German ö / French eu; a rounded version of e.
- ğ (in öğleden): lengthens the preceding vowel; no hard g sound.
- ç (in açık): like ch in church.
- h (in sabah): pronounced; don’t drop it.
Why is there no word for “the” or “a” before kırtasiye?
Turkish has no articles. Specificity comes from context. Here, Kırtasiye is understood as “the stationery shop” relevant in the situation (e.g., a sign on its door).
Why is it öğleden with -den and not -dan?
The ablative suffix is -DAn, which follows vowel harmony and consonant voicing:
- After a front vowel (e, i, ö, ü), use -den; after a back vowel (a, ı, o, u), use -dan. öğle ends with the front vowel e, so -den.
- The D becomes t only after a voiceless consonant; since öğle ends in a vowel, it stays d.
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