Asking "When"
To ask when an event takes place, we use the question word ne zaman (literally: "what time").
You can use ne zaman on its own with a noun to ask when an event is happening, or you can pair it with a verb to ask when an action starts or ends.
| When is the party? | Parti ne zaman? |
| When does the program start? | Program ne zaman başlıyor? |
| When does the meeting end? | Toplantı ne zaman bitiyor? |
Times of Day
When answering a ne zaman question with a general time of day—such as gece (night)—you usually don't need a preposition like "at" or "in". You can place the time word directly before the verb.
| The movie ends at night. | Film gece bitiyor. |
| I am working at night. | Gece çalışıyorum. |
Before and After
To say that an action happens "before" or "after" an event, Turkish combines the ablative case suffix (-dan/-den) with the words önce (before) and sonra (after).
If the noun ends in a voiceless consonant (like ç in maç), remember that the suffix will undergo consonant mutation and become -tan/-ten.
| We are meeting before the match. | Maçtan önce buluşuyoruz. |
| We are resting after the exam. | Sınavdan sonra dinleniyoruz. |
Before and After Noon
We can apply this exact same pattern to the word öğle (noon) to talk about the morning and afternoon.
Since öğle ends in a vowel, it takes the standard -den suffix to form common time expressions:
- öğleden önce (before noon)
- öğleden sonra (after noon / afternoon)
| The meeting ends before noon. | Toplantı öğleden önce bitiyor. |
| I am returning to the office in the afternoon. | Öğleden sonra ofise dönüyorum. |