Breakdown of Hastalıktan ötürü evde kaldı.
ev
house
kalmak
to stay / to be left / to remain (in a state)
hastalık
illness, disease
ötürü
due to, because of
Questions & Answers about Hastalıktan ötürü evde kaldı.
Why does the word hastalık take the -tan ending here?
The postposition ötürü (meaning "due to" or "because of") always requires the noun before it to be in the ablative case, which is the -DAn suffix. Because hastalık ends in a hard consonant (k), the suffix takes the hard form -tan.
Could I use dolayı instead of ötürü in this sentence?
Yes, hastalıktan dolayı means the exact same thing. Both dolayı and ötürü follow the ablative case and show reason or consequence. Dolayı is slightly more common in everyday speech, while ötürü can sound a bit more formal, but they are fully interchangeable.
Can I express this same idea without using ötürü?
Yes! You can often just use the ablative case on its own to show a reason: Hastalıktan evde kaldı (literally "He stayed at home from illness"). Adding ötürü just makes the cause-and-effect relationship more explicit, much like using "due to" instead of "from" in English.
Why didn't the k at the end of hastalık soften to a ğ?
Consonant softening (like k turning into ğ) only happens when you attach a suffix that starts with a vowel (like the dative -a or accusative -ı). Since the ablative suffix -tan starts with a consonant, the k remains unchanged.
Learn Hastalıktan ötürü evde kaldı and more in Turkish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free