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All Turkish Case Markers Explained

  • 7 hours ago
  • 3 min read

First of all, I'd like to congratulate you on your patience with learning the Turkish language. If you find yourself reading this blog, you are at a point of learning where things get a little complicated. Turkish is not an easy language, for sure. Especially, the case markers. But if you have taken various Turkish lessons in the past, I can say that you are probably familiar with every single case marker in this language.

But if you ever ask yourself questions like "what is accusative?", "What is a dative suffix?" etc. This blog will be (hopefully) an answer to your prayers.


I'll categorize these case markers for you to make it easier to remember.


Easy case markers:

-DA = Locative Case - tell us about the location of the action or subject. [-da /-de /-ta /-te]

Ahmet ofiste. - Ahmet is in the office. (Tells us about the location of the subject)

Ahmet ofiste çalışıyor. - Ahmet is working in the office. (Tells us about the location of the action)


Ben evdeyim. (Tells us about the location of the subject)

Ben evde film izliyorum. (Tells us about the location of the action)


-(y)lA = Instrumental Case - Tells us who accompanies the subject. [-yla /-yle /-la /-le]

Ahmet Ayşe'yle ofiste. - Ahmet is in the office with Ayşe. (Tells us about with whom the subject is)

Ahmet Ayşe'yle dans ediyor. - Ahmet is dancing with Ayşe. (Tells us about with whom the subject is)


These two are easy, because almost any action can be done in any place and with any person. These are also the only case markers that can appear in a nominal sentence.

a happy cat in türkiye licking its palm

Not so easy case markers:

-(y)A = Dative Case - tells us about the direction of the subject or main object.

Ahmet ofise gidiyor. - Ahmet is going to the office. (Tells us about the direction of the subject)

Bardağı masaya koyuyorum. - I'm putting the glass (to) on the table. (Tells us about the direction of the object)


-DAn = Ablative Case - tells us about the separation, distancing and origin of the subject or main object.

Ahmet odadan çıkıyor. - Ahmet is leaving (from) the room. (Tells us about the separation/distancing of the subject from the indirect object)

Ahmet okuldan geliyor. - Ahmet is coming from school. (Tells us about the origin of the subject)


These two are not so easy, because they both need certain verbs to work with.

a serious cat in turkish streets

Difficult case markers:

-(y)I = Accusative Case - tells us about the specific main object.

Ahmet çikolatayı yiyor. - Ahmet is eating the chocolate.


- = Nominative Case - tells us about the non-specific main object.

Ahmet çikolata yiyor. - Ahmet is eating a chocolate.


These two are not that difficult actually, just pick these if you don't feel like the verb needs a direction or separation.


a grumpy cat in a cafe in türkiye

The genitive case is not included.***


You can download and print the verb list that I designed for A1 learners. The verb list includes the case marker that the verb takes(frequent ones only). There are also example sentences for each one of them.



There is one more PDF that you can download and print to study the 3 main case markers. Tho, it doesn't have accusative in it. You may email me at info@turkish.academy for more PDFs like this.

You may practice all case markers with this 24-question quiz game.


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