Turkish suffix -ki

The suffix -ki is one of the most common and useful suffixes in Turkish. In addition to forming possessive pronouns such as benimki, seninki, and onunki (mine, yours, and his/hers/its), it also helps us describe place, direction, and time with ease.

-ki with Place and Direction

We add -ki to words in the locative case to make adjectives of place and direction. It has the meaning the one which is / that is.

Examples of -ki in the locative case (adjectives of place and direction):

• Bu fotoğraftaki kız kim? → Who is the girl in this photo?

• Öndeki arabayı takip et. → Follow the car in front.

• Listedeki her şeyi aldın mı? → Have you bought everything on the list?

• Aşağıdaki soruları cevaplayınız. → Answer the following questions.

• İkinci raftaki çantaya bakabilir miyim? → Can I see the handbag on the second shelf?

• Sağındaki kırmızı dosyayı bana uzatır mısın? → Can you pass me the red file on your right?

-ki with Time Expressions

We can also add -ki to words such as dün, bugün, yarın, sabah, öğleden sonra, akşam, etc. to make adjectives of time.

Examples of -ki with time expressions (adjectives of time):

• Bugünkü gazeteyi okudun mu? → Have you read today’s newspaper?

• Yarınki toplantıya katılacak mısın? → Will you attend tomorrow’s meeting?

• Öğleden sonraki Türkçe dersi iptal edildi. → The Turkish class in the afternoon has been cancelled.

• Sonraki sınav daha zor olacak. → The next exam will be harder.

Normally, -ki does not follow vowel harmony. However, after dün and bugün, it changes to -kü:

• dünkü → yesterday’s

• bugünkü → today’s

A Note on ki as a Conjunction

Besides being a suffix, ki is also used as a conjunction with different meanings. In that case, it is written separately (… ki …). We won’t go into this usage in this post, but keep it in mind for later lessons.

Final Tip

The Turkish suffix -ki is short but powerful. It helps you describe where something is or when something happens. To practice, try making a few of your own sentences with -ki and notice how often it appears in daily Turkish.

This lesson is taken from my book easy Turkish Grammar with answers 1 (A1–A2). Explore more about the book here.

See also -ci and -li, other highly productive word-forming suffixes in Turkish.