Rather than (-mAktAnsa)

The Converb of Preference (-mAktAnsa)

To express a preference for one action over another—meaning "rather than" or "instead of" doing something—Turkish combines three familiar suffixes: the infinitive (-mAk), the ablative case (-tAn), and the conditional (-sa / -se).

Since the infinitive (-mak or -mek) always ends in the voiceless consonant k, the ablative suffix will always harden from d to t. This leaves us with two simple forms to remember, based on 2-way vowel harmony: -maktansa and -mektense.

Let's see this in action, looking at the choices consumers and users make when shopping online.

Stating the Better Choice

The -mAktAnsa converb sets up the action you want to avoid. The rest of the sentence then provides the preferred alternative. Because of this built-in comparison, you will very frequently see this form paired with verbs like tercih etmek (to prefer) or adjectives describing the alternative as daha iyi (better) or daha hızlı (faster).