Turkish Nouns & Adjectives: Why They Aren’t Usually Verbs

In English, nouns and adjectives can sometimes be used as verbs without any change in form. In Turkish, however, they usually need a suffix to function as verbs.

Compare in the following examples:

• cevap (answer) → cevaplamak (to answer)

• destek (support) → desteklemek (to support)

• fırça (brush) → fırçalamak (to brush)

• sabun (soap) → sabunlamak (to soap)

  
  

• temiz (clean) → temizlemek (to clean)

• kuru (dry) → kurulamak (to dry → to make something dry)

• yavaş (slow) → yavaşlamak (to slow → to become slower)

  
  

• tık (click) → tıklamak (to click)

• çat (crack) → çatlamak (to crack)

  
  

The suffix -le/-la is the most common verb-forming suffix in Turkish. You can add it to nouns, adjectives, and even onomatopoeic words. The nice thing is that you can make many nouns or adjectives into verbs with -le/-la. And if you see a verb with this suffix, you can often drop it and use the base word as a noun or adjective.

Here are three rare examples of Turkish nouns and adjectives that can also function as verbs without any change in form:

• savaş (war) → savaşmak (to make war)

• barış (peace) → barışmak (to make peace)

• kuru (dry) → kurumak (to become dry)

The same is true for whether a verb is transitive or intransitive. Unlike English, a verb in Turkish cannot usually be both at the same time. In Turkish, we need to add suffixes to intransitive verbs to make them transitive.

👉 For more details, see my lesson on Turkish Transitive and Intransitive Verbs.

Try it yourself

Turn these nouns or adjectives into verbs using -le/-la.

1. su (water) → …

2. av (hunt) → …

3. şampuan (şampuan) → …

4. hazır (ready) → …

5. miyav (miaow) → …

Want more examples of the -le/-la suffix and other Turkish word-formation suffixes? You’ll find plenty in my book Turkish Vocabulary Booster: Word Formation in Turkish. 👉 Check out the book here.