Expressing 'some of' (-den/-dan)

In Turkish, the ablative case suffixes -den and -dan normally translate to "from". However, they have another very common use: the partitive.

When you want to say you are using, taking, or choosing "some of" a larger group of items—like picking a few gemstones from a box to make a necklace—you attach the ablative suffix to the noun.

Structure: Noun + Plural + Ablative

To say "some of the [items]", we typically pluralize the noun first, then add the ablative suffix. Since the plural suffixes (-ler / -lar) end in the consonant r, you will always use -den after -ler and -dan after -lar.

• inci (pearl) + -ler
  • -den = incilerden (some of the pearls)
• yakut (ruby) + -lar
  • -dan = yakutlardan (some of the rubies)

Let's see this in action as we select materials for our jewelry design:

Expressing existence with "var"

You can also use this partitive structure with var (there is / there are) to express that "there are some of" a certain item available, or pair it with pointing words like bu (this/these).