The Beauty of the Verbs; "bil-"

If you read my last blog post about the word can, you know how a single short word "can" carry deep cultural and emotional meaning in Turkish. This time, we’re moving from the heart to the mind. Let’s talk about bil- ; one of the most fundamental verbs in Turkish, meaning "to know".

Just like can, the root bil- (hyphen indicates the infinitive) is everywhere. It’s in everyday conversations, in academic discussions, in technology… even in words you might not realize are connected. Once you start recognizing it, you’ll see a whole family of related words forming around it. And that’s where Turkish becomes incredibly fun and logical to learn.

The Core Meaning: Bil-

At its simplest, bil- means to know.

• Biliyorum – I know.

• Bilmiyorum – I don’t know.

• Biliyor musun? – Do you know?

But Turkish loves to build on roots. By adding suffixes, we can turn verbs into nouns, adjectives, and even entirely new concepts. The magic is that once you know the root, you can often guess the meaning of the new word.

The Word Family of Bil-

Here are some common words derived from bil-:

Word	Meaning
bil-	to know (active form)
bilge	wise person
bilgelik	wisdom
bilgece	wisely
bilgi	knowledge, information
bilgili	informed
bilgisiz	ignorant, uninformed
bilgisizlik	ignorance
bilgin	scholar, learned person
bilim	science
bilimsel	scientific
bilimci	scientist
bilişim	informatics
bilgisayar	computer (lit. information counter)
bilinç	consciousness, awareness
bilinçli	conscious, aware
bilinçsiz	unconscious, unaware
bilerek	on purpose (lit. knowingly)
bilirkişi	expert, expert witness
(çok) bilmiş	know-it-all
bildir-	to inform (causative form)
bildirge	manifesto
bildirim	notification
bilin-	to be known (passive form)
bilinen	known
bilinmeyen	unknown
bilinmez	unknown, uncertain

These examples can be expanded even further with suffixes that turn nouns back into verbs. For example, bilgi (knowledge) + -len becomes bilgilen (to become informed), which is a verb derived from the noun bilgi, which itself comes from the root bil-. In other words, you can have a root that creates a noun, and then that noun can generate a whole new verb and the cycle continues. To keep things clear and beginner-friendly, I kept the list simple.

Once you recognize the root bil-, all these words start making sense. Even if you’ve never seen bilgisayar before, breaking it down (bilgi + say- + -ar) can get you close to the meaning.

A Quick Note on -Abil-

If you’ve studied Turkish a bit, you’ve also met -Abil-, the suffix that means can / be able to. It might look like it’s related to bil-, but in modern Turkish, they’re considered separate. Historically, some linguists trace -Abil- back to “bilmek” in older forms of the language, where “to know” was also used in the sense of “to be able to.” Over time, it became its own grammatical tool:

• Yapabilirim – I can do it.

• Gidebilir misin? – Can you go?

So while they share a distant connection, bil- (to know) and -Abil- (can) have different roles today.

Why This Matters for Learners

Turkish is a language built like LEGO bricks. Roots are the base pieces, and suffixes are the connectors. Learn a root like bil-, and suddenly you can understand or even guess the meaning of a dozen new words.

Here’s the trick:

1. Spot the root.

2. Notice the suffixes.

3. Piece them together.

For example, if you hear bilinmeyen, even without knowing it, you can break it down:bil- (to know) + -in (passive) + -me (negation) + -yen (present participle) = unknown.

The beauty of Turkish is that it rewards curiosity. The more roots you learn, the more the language starts to make sense. And soon, even unfamiliar words will start to feel like old friends.

So next time you see a word with bil- in it, smile. You probably already know more than you think.