Location and Directions in Turkish

In Brief

Turkish distinguishes being at a place, moving to it, and moving from it: burada means “here,” buraya means “to here,” and buradan means “from here.” For simple directions, learn common combinations as units: sağa dön “turn right,” ileri git “go forward,” yukarı çık “go up,” and aşağı in “go down.”

Overview

Location and direction words are some of the most immediately useful Turkish words. They let you say where something is, ask where to go, and understand short instructions in a station, hotel, taxi, or street: Tuvalet nerede? “Where is the restroom?”; Orada. “There.”; Sola dönün. “Turn left.”

The basic vocabulary belongs at A1, but Turkish expresses spatial relationships a little differently from English. English often relies on separate words such as “at,” “to,” and “from.” Turkish usually adds a case suffix (an ending that shows a word’s role) to the location word. That is why “here” can appear as burada, buraya, or buradan.

A second useful distinction is between forms such as burada and burası. Both can correspond to English “here,” but they do different jobs. Burada identifies a location: “in/at this place.” Burası names the place itself: “this place” or “the place here.” Master the simple location forms first; the later sections explain this contrast and several natural extensions.

How It Works

The core location words

The two central sets are built around bura- “this place/here” and ora- “that place/there.” Their forms show whether something is located at the place, moves toward it, or comes from it.

Meaning	Here	There	Typical question
place itself	burası	orası	Neresi? — “Which place?”
at/in the place	burada	orada	Nerede? — “Where?”
to/toward the place	buraya	oraya	Nereye? — “Where to?”
from the place	buradan	oradan	Nereden? — “Where from?”

These are best learned as complete words at first. You can still see the regular Turkish pattern:

• -da/-de marks location: at, in, or on.
• -a/-e marks a destination or direction: to or toward. In buraya and oraya, y helps join the sounds.
• -dan/-den marks origin: from or out of.

The changing vowels are an example of vowel harmony (Turkish suffix vowels adjust to the vowels in the word). You do not need to calculate the forms in this table each time; they are extremely common and worth memorizing whole.

Burada versus burası

Use burada when you could naturally ask “where?” It functions as a location expression.

• Anahtar burada. — “The key is here.”
• Burada bekliyorum. — “I’m waiting here.”
• Burada bir eczane var mı? — “Is there a pharmacy here?”

Use burası when “this place” is itself the topic, subject, or description. A subject is the person or thing the sentence is about.

• Burası çok sessiz. — “This place is very quiet.”
• Burası neresi? — “What place is this?”
• Burası Ankara. — “This is Ankara.”

The same contrast applies to orada and orası: Çanta orada means “The bag is there,” while Orası çok uzak means “That place is very far away.” English often translates both members of each pair with “here” or “there,” so translate the idea rather than matching one English word mechanically.

Right and left

The basic nouns are sağ “right” and sol “left.” With movement, they usually take the destination ending:

Turkish	Literal pattern	Natural English
sağa dön	turn toward the right	turn right
sola dön	turn toward the left	turn left
sağa git	go toward the right	go right
sola git	go toward the left	go left

For a fixed position, add the location ending: sağda “on the right” and solda “on the left.” For movement from one side, use sağdan “from/by the right” and soldan “from/by the left.”

• Banka sağda. — “The bank is on the right.”
• Soldan gidin. — “Go by/from the left.”

Forward, back, up, and down

The core direction words combine naturally with particular verbs. Turkish often chooses a verb that makes the movement explicit instead of using a general equivalent of English “go.”

Direction	Common instruction	Meaning
ileri	İleri git.	Go forward.
geri	Geri dön.	Go back / turn back.
yukarı	Yukarı çık.	Go up.
aşağı	Aşağı in.	Go down.

Çıkmak means to go out, rise, or ascend; inmek means to descend or get off. This makes yukarı çıkmak and aşağı inmek especially natural pairs. You will also hear ileriye and geriye, with an explicit destination ending, but the shorter ileri and geri are very common in basic instructions.

Giving instructions politely

The shortest command uses the bare verb stem and addresses one person informally:

• Gel. — “Come.”
• Dön. — “Turn.”
• Git. — “Go.”
• Çık. — “Go up/out.”
• İn. — “Go down/get off.”

Add -in/-ın/-un/-ün (with spelling changes required by vowel harmony) for a polite or plural command: gelin, dönün, gidin, çıkın, inin. In directions to a stranger, the polite form is often the safer choice: Sağa dönün “Turn right, please.” Turkish can also add lütfen “please,” but the polite command ending itself already makes the instruction less abrupt.

Combining steps

Directions often form a chain. Sonra means “then/afterward,” düz means “straight,” and kadar can mark an endpoint in the pattern “as far as/until.”

• Düz gidin, sonra sola dönün. — “Go straight, then turn left.”
• Köşeye kadar yürüyün. — “Walk as far as the corner.”
• Buradan yukarı çıkın. — “Go up from here.”

Notice that Turkish does not require a separate subject pronoun in these commands. The command ending already shows how the listener is being addressed.

Examples in Context

Turkish	English	Note
Buraya gel.	Come here.	Informal singular command; movement toward here
Ben burada bekliyorum.	I’m waiting here.	Fixed location
Burası çok güzel.	This place is very beautiful.	Burası names the place itself
Market orada.	The grocery store is there.	Location at a more distant place
Oraya otobüsle gidiyoruz.	We’re going there by bus.	Destination
Oradan geliyorum.	I’m coming from there.	Point of origin
Sağa dön.	Turn right.	Informal singular instruction
İkinci sokaktan sola dönün.	Turn left at the second street.	Polite/plural instruction
Eczane sağda.	The pharmacy is on the right.	Fixed position
Düz ileri gidin.	Go straight ahead.	Common route instruction
Geri dönmeyin.	Don’t turn back.	Polite/plural negative command
Yukarı çık.	Go up.	Often used for stairs or an upper floor
Aşağı iniyoruz.	We’re going down.	Downward movement
Buradan istasyona nasıl giderim?	How do I get to the station from here?	Practical direction question
Tuvalet nerede? — Solda.	Where is the restroom? — On the left.	A short, natural answer

Common Mistakes

Using a location form for a destination

• Wrong: Burada gel.
• Right: Buraya gel.
• Why: Coming involves movement toward a destination, so use buraya “to here.” Burada means being or doing something here.

Treating burası and burada as interchangeable

• Wrong: Anahtar burası.
• Right: Anahtar burada.
• Why: The key is located here, so the question is nerede? “where?” and the matching form is burada. Use burası to mean “this place,” as in Burası sıcak “This place is hot.”

Saying bare sağ or sol after “turn”

• Wrong: Sağ dön.
• Right: Sağa dön.
• Why: The turn is toward the right, so sağ normally takes the destination ending -a. The same pattern gives sola dön.

Translating “go up” with a general verb every time

• Less natural in many situations: Yukarı git.
• Usually natural for stairs or floors: Yukarı çık.
• Why: Turkish commonly pairs upward movement with çıkmak “ascend/go out” and downward movement with inmek “descend/get off.” Yukarı gitmek is possible, but the setting determines which verb sounds most precise.

Using an informal command with every stranger

• Too direct in a polite exchange: Sola dön.
• Polite: Sola dönün.
• Why: The bare stem addresses one person informally. When helping or addressing an unfamiliar adult, the -in command form is more courteous.

Copying English prepositions word for word

• Wrong approach: searching for a separate Turkish word for every “to,” “at,” and “from.”
• Right pattern: orada “there/at that place,” oraya “to there,” oradan “from there.”
• Why: Turkish often puts spatial information in an ending. Learn each three-way set with a movement verb and a location verb.

Usage Notes

In everyday answers, Turkish frequently uses location words without a verb: Banka nerede? — Orada. “Where is the bank? — There.” Turkish present-tense sentences often omit the equivalent of English “is” in this kind of statement.

Düz gitmek means “to go straight,” while ileri gitmek emphasizes forward movement. They overlap, but route instructions commonly use düz gidin for “continue straight.” Dosdoğru adds emphasis: “straight ahead, without turning.”

The words sağ and sol can also refer to body sides or political positions, but in a route context they are understood spatially. Sağ taraf and sol taraf mean “the right-hand side” and “the left-hand side.” You may hear sağ tarafta instead of sağda; both can mean “on the right,” with tarafta explicitly saying “on the side.”

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master the following details at A1, but they explain forms you will encounter later.

Turkish has a useful middle-distance or attention-pointing set built with şura-:

Place itself	At the place	To the place	From the place
şurası	şurada	şuraya	şuradan

The three-way contrast bura–şura–ora does not map perfectly onto English. Broadly, bura is near the speaker, ora is away from the speaker, and şura often points out or draws attention to a place. Actual choice depends on what the speakers can see and how they direct attention, not only measurable distance.

The same direction words can take additional endings when they behave more like nouns: ileride can mean “ahead” or, in a time context, “in the future”; geride means “behind/left behind”; yukarıda means “upstairs/above”; and aşağıda means “downstairs/below.” Compare:

• Yukarı çıkın. — “Go up.” (direction of movement)
• Müdür yukarıda. — “The manager is upstairs.” (location)
• İleride bir köprü var. — “There is a bridge ahead.” (location farther along)

Turkish also builds precise routes with postpositions—words that come after their complement rather than before it. For example, bankanın karşısında means “opposite the bank,” otelin yanında means “next to the hotel,” and köprünün altında means “under the bridge.” These structures involve possessive and case endings and belong to a later stage, but they expand naturally from the basic question nerede?

Finally, movement verbs carry perspective. Buraya gelmek is “to come here,” toward the speaker or reference point; oraya gitmek is “to go there,” away from it. English speakers sometimes choose “come” and “go” loosely, but Turkish learners should notice where the speaker imagines the destination.

Practice Tips

1. Learn location triplets. Say burada–buraya–buradan and orada–oraya–oradan while imagining “at–to–from.” Then make one sentence with each form.
2. Act out the verb pairs. Physically turn while saying sağa dön and sola dön, step forward for ileri git, and point to stairs for yukarı çık and aşağı in. Movement makes these combinations easier to recall.
3. Describe a real route. Give directions from your home to a nearby shop using düz gidin, sağa/sola dönün, sonra, and a final location such as sağda. Record yourself, then check every location ending.

Related Concepts

• This concept is an independent A1 vocabulary and grammar topic; the supplied Turkish grammar map lists no direct prerequisite.
• Useful next topics include Turkish case endings, commands, and spatial expressions. No directly linked downstream concept was supplied for this article, so these are study directions rather than concept-page links.