When pointing out specific items—like "the vase on the table" or "the painting on the wall"—Turkish turns the location into an adjective by adding the suffix -ki to the locative case.
Here is how you build it:
- Noun: masa (table)
- Locative case (-da / -de / -ta / -te): masada (on the table)
- Add -ki: masadaki (the [thing] on the table)
Unlike most Turkish suffixes, -ki does not follow vowel harmony. The ending is always -daki, -deki, -taki, or -teki.
Consonant Mutation
If the noun ends in a hard consonant (p, ç, t, k, f, h, s, ş), the locative suffix starts with a 't' (-ta or -te).
For example, tezgah (stall) ends in a hard consonant, so its locative form is tezgahta. Adding -ki gives us tezgahtaki. Similarly, raf (shelf) becomes raftaki.
Treating Locations as Adjectives
Once you add -ki, the location becomes a standard adjective placed right before the noun. The modified noun behaves normally and can still take any necessary case endings, such as the accusative (for specific direct objects) or the ablative (for motion away from).