Speaking Turkish
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Vowel Harmony
When you are adding a suffix to a word, the suffix has to harmonise with the word you are adding it to.
There are two types of suffixes:
- E TYPE (The suffix contains a or e)
- I TYPE (The suffix contains ı,i,u or ü).
There are two type of vowels:
| Front vowels | Back vowels |
| E | A |
| İ | I |
| Ö | O |
| Ü | U |
| If the last vowel in the base is: | E TYPE | I TYPE | ||
| (You choose the suffix containing) | ||||
| a | or | I | A | I |
| e | or | i | E | İ |
| o | or | u | A | U |
| ö | or | ü | E | Ü |
There are many suffixes in Turkish. One is added to make a word plural
Example:
PLURALS: To make a noun plural you add either -lar or -ler in Turkish
How will you decide which one you are going to add?
A word: adam=man
You want to say: men
Do you add -lar or -ler to adam?
The last vowel in the base is: a , this is a e type suffix, so you choose a= adamlar
