When you want to give strong advice, criticize someone's current behavior, or suggest a better course of action, Turkish uses a specific structure that translates to "Instead of doing [action]."
You form this by combining the future participle suffix -(y)acak / -(y)ecek, a possessive ending (to show who is doing the action), and the dative case ending -a / -e (to / towards).
Because the possessive suffixes start with a vowel, the k in -(y)acak / -(y)ecek usually softens to ğ.
| Person | Verb + -(y)AcAk + Possessive + Dative | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| I | yapacağıma | instead of my doing |
| You | yapacağına | instead of your doing |
| He/She/It | yapacağına* | instead of his/her doing |
| We | yapacağımıza | instead of our doing |
| You (formal/plural) | yapacağınıza | instead of your doing |
| They | yapacaklarına | instead of their doing |
(Note: For "He/She/It", the buffer letter *n is added before the dative case: yapacağ + ı + n + a).*
This structure is perfect for telling someone to stop a negative habit and do something productive instead.
| Instead of constantly complaining, solve the problem. | Sürekli şikâyet edeceğine problemi çöz. |
| Instead of sleeping until noon, you should do a little sports. | Öğleye kadar uyuyacağınıza biraz spor yapmalısınız. |
It works just as well when talking about third parties or evaluating someone else's choices.
| If she is going to the center, instead of taking a taxi, she should get on the subway. | Eğer merkeze gidiyorsa, taksiye bineceğine metroya binmeli. |
| He used to blame everyone in the past, but now instead of criticizing, he helps. | Geçmişte herkesi suçluyordu ama şimdi eleştireceğine yardım ediyor. |
Combining Multiple Actions
If you want to suggest an alternative to several negative actions at once, simply conjugate both negative actions using this structure and connect them with ve (and).
| Instead of being lazy and browsing on social media, take on a creative project. | Tembellik yapacağına ve sosyal medyada gezineceğine yaratıcı bir proje üstlen. |