Learn Turkish: Ekonomi ile ilgili gündem maddeleri çok önemli. - The agenda items related to the economy are very important.

While both can translate to 'about,' ile ilgili specifically means 'related to' and naturally acts as an adjective describing a noun. Here, it describes the gündem maddeleri (agenda items). Hakkında is more often used as an adverb to describe actions, like talking or thinking about a topic.

Can I attach ile directly to the word ekonomi?

Absolutely. You will frequently see and hear ekonomiyle ilgili. When attaching ile as a suffix to a word ending in a vowel, you add a buffer y and follow vowel harmony, resulting in -yle here. Both the separate word and the suffix mean the exact same thing.

Why does maddeler have an -i at the end to make maddeleri?

This is because gündem maddeleri is a noun compound. In Turkish, when you put two nouns together to create a single concept, the second noun takes a compound marker. After making madde plural (maddeler), we add the -i suffix to link it to gündem (agenda).

How does the word order work with ile ilgili?

The phrase ile ilgili always forms a block with the noun before it. Here, Ekonomi ile ilgili is a single chunk meaning 'related to the economy.' Because it functions as a description, it is placed directly before the noun phrase it modifies (gündem maddeleri).