Negative Nominal Sentences in Turkish

In Turkish, to make negative nominal sentences, we don’t use a verb or auxiliary like "is not" or "am not". Instead, we use the word “değil”, which means “not”.

No “to be” — Just “not”

Just like in positive nominal sentences, Turkish doesn’t use the verb "to be". Instead, it uses pronoun suffixes. But when we make a sentence negative, we remove the suffix from the noun and attach it to the word “değil” instead.

So:

• "Ben doktorum" → "I am a doctor"

• Ben doktor değilim → "I am not a doctor"

Here, the -im ending moves to değil.

 Basic Structure

Subject + [noun/adjective] + değil + personal suffix

🧠 Example:

• Positive: Sen öğrencisin. – You are a student.

• Negative: Sen öğrenci değilsin. – You are not a student.

Third Person Reminder

Just like in positive nominal sentences, the third person does not take a personal suffix — not even on “değil”.

• "Ahmet hasta." – Ahmet is sick.

• Ahmet hasta değil. – Ahmet is not sick.

Personal Suffixes Used with değil

The suffixes are the same as in positive nominal sentences — just added to değil instead. Since değil always fixed, the ending will also be fixed in terms of the vowel harmony.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

🚫 Don’t say: Ben doktorum değil.

✅ Say: Ben doktor değilim

🚫 Don’t attach the suffix to the noun in negative sentences.

✅ It goes on “değil”!

Here is a negative nominal sentence example chart