Learn Turkish
Lesson 127: The suffix -(y)ken
In this lesson, you will learn about the copula -(y)ken. This suffix creates adverbs out of verbs and make adjectives/nouns predicates. Its meaning is close to "when" or "while".
It combines with many other suffixes, but for now we will only see it with aorist and adjectives/nouns. -(y)ken does not take personal markers, so we have to express the subject at the beginning of the sentence. Let's see how:
| Turkish | English |
|---|---|
| Ben çocukken (...) | When I was a kid (...) |
| Sen yolda koşarken (...) | While you were running on the road (...) |
| Kamil arabaya bakarken (...) | While Kamil was looking at the car (...) |
As in other suffixes beginning with (y), the y appears when the suffix is preceded by a vowel.
| Turkish | English |
|---|---|
| Ülkemiz bu haldeyken (...) | When our country is in this condition (...) |
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| only, merely, solely, just | sadece |
| liraTURKISH CURRENCY | lira |
| chips | cips |
| When I was little, chips were only one lira. | Ben küçükken cips sadece bir liraydı. |
| girlfriend | kızarkadaş |
| While my girlfriend cooks, I will watch TV. | Kızarkadaşım yemek yaparken ben televizyon izleyeceğim. |
| to laugh very loudly, to burst into laughter | kahkaha atmak |
| While Kamil was falling to the floor, all of us looked at him. | Kamil yere düşerken hepimiz ona baktık. |
| situation, condition, state | hal |
| country | ülke |
| to be extracted, to come out of (something), to originate | çıkmak |
| When our country is in this condition, something good will not come out of us. | Ülkemiz bu haldeyken, bizden iyi bir şey çıkmaz. |
| to study | ders çalışmak |
| street, alley | sokak |
| While some kids study in schools, some kids are working in the streets. | Bazı çocuklar okulda ders çalışırken, bazı çocuklar sokakta çalışıyor. |
| When speaking with patients, doctors are very careful. | Doktorlar hastalarla konuşurken çok dikkatli olurlar. |
Sign up to save your progress!