Turkish 122 - The passive voice

In this lesson you will learn to use the passive voice in Turkish. The passive voice is used when the performer of an action is unknown, unimportant or when we want to hide who the performer is. The passive voice is also used to describe how things are generally done.

The passive voice is constructed by putting a suffix after the root of the verb. Which suffix we use depends on the last letter of the root:

  • Roots that end with a vowel are followed by -n
  • Roots that end with the consonant L are followed by -İn
  • Roots that end with another consonant are followed by -İl
ActiveRoot ends inSuffixPassive
yakalamak
(to catch)
vowel-nyakalanmak
(to be caught)
bulmak
(to find)
L-İnbulunmak
(to be found)
kurmak
(to found)
other consonant-İlkurulmak
(to be founded)

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