Passive Voice in Turkish

In Brief

Turkish forms the passive voice (edilgen çatı) by attaching a suffix directly to the verb stem: yaz-ıl- “be written,” bekle-n- “be waited for,” and bil-in- “be known.” Tense, negation, and person endings then follow this passive stem: Kapı açıldı means “The door was opened,” while Burada sigara içilmez is the natural Turkish way to say “Smoking is not allowed here.”

Overview

The passive voice describes what happens without making the person who performs the action the main focus. That person is often unknown, obvious, unimportant, or deliberately left unnamed. In Görevli kapıyı açtı (“The attendant opened the door”), görevli is the doer. In Kapı açıldı (“The door was opened”), the event and the door matter more than the doer.

English usually builds a passive with a form of “be” plus a past participle: “was opened,” “is sold,” “will be announced.” Turkish does not need a separate equivalent of “be” here. It adds a voice suffix to the verb stem and treats the result like a normal verb. This makes passive forms compact and productive: satılıyor “is being sold,” satılmadı “was not sold,” satılacak “will be sold.”

At B1, the essential task is to recognize the passive suffix and put it before the tense suffixes you already know. It is also important to learn how Turkish uses the passive. It is especially natural in notices, instructions, recipes, news reports, academic or official prose, and statements about what people generally do. English sometimes chooses “people,” “you,” or a different expression where Turkish simply uses a passive verb.

How It Works

Choosing the passive suffix

The suffix depends mainly on the final sound of the verb stem. The capital I in the pattern -(I)l or -(I)n stands for one of ı, i, u, ü, selected by four-way vowel harmony.

End of verb stem	Basic pattern	Examples
Most consonants other than l	-ıl/-il/-ul/-ül	yaz-ıl-mak “to be written,” gör-ül-mek “to be seen,” aç-ıl-mak “to be opened”
A vowel	-n	ara-n-mak “to be searched for/called,” bekle-n-mek “to be waited for,” oku-n-mak “to be read”
The consonant l	-ın/-in/-un/-ün	al-ın-mak “to be taken,” bil-in-mek “to be known,” bul-un-mak “to be found”

The infinitive ending -mak/-mek is removed first. For example, yazmak gives the stem yaz-; adding the passive produces yazılmak. With beklemek, the stem is bekle-, so the passive is beklenmek. With almak, the stem ends in l, so it becomes alınmak, not alılmak.

Vowel harmony follows the last vowel of the stem:

Last vowel	Passive vowel	Example
a, ı	ı	yaz-ıl-, al-ın-
e, i	i	kes-il-, bil-in-
o, u	u	bul-un-, kur-ul-
ö, ü	ü	gör-ül-, böl-ün-

Do not try to choose the suffix from the English translation. Choose it from the sound at the end of the Turkish verb stem.

The order of suffixes

The passive marker comes immediately after the verb stem. Negation, tense or aspect (the way the action is viewed in time), and any person ending come later:

verb stem + passive + negation + tense/aspect + person

Form	Breakdown	Meaning
açıldı	aç-ıl-dı	it was opened
açılmadı	aç-ıl-ma-dı	it was not opened
açılıyor	aç-ıl-ıyor	it is being opened / opening
açılacak	aç-ıl-acak	it will be opened / will open
yapılabilir	yap-ıl-abil-ir	it can be done
duyulmamış	duy-ul-ma-mış	apparently it was not heard / unheard

A passive verb can appear with all the ordinary Turkish tense and mood forms. The passive suffix itself does not mean past or present. Compare yazıldı “was written,” yazılıyor “is being written,” and yazılacak “will be written.”

What happens to the object

In an active sentence, a transitive verb (a verb that can act on something) may have a direct object—the person or thing directly affected by the action:

• Ayşe mektubu yazdı. — “Ayşe wrote the letter.”
• Mektup Ayşe tarafından yazıldı. — “The letter was written by Ayşe.”

In the active sentence, mektubu has the accusative ending -(y)ı because it is a specific direct object. In the passive sentence, mektup becomes the grammatical subject (the item the sentence is built around), so that accusative ending disappears. The verb is normally third-person singular here because mektup is singular.

With a plural passive subject, everyday Turkish often allows either a singular or plural verb, following the broader rules of Turkish subject–verb agreement. A human plural subject more readily takes plural agreement:

• Öğrenciler salona alındı. — “The students were admitted to the hall.”
• Öğrenciler salona alındılar. — same basic meaning, with explicit plural agreement

Naming the doer with tarafından

If the doer must be stated, Turkish commonly uses tarafından, literally “by the side of” but functioning as “by” in a passive sentence:

• Roman Orhan Pamuk tarafından yazıldı. — “The novel was written by Orhan Pamuk.”
• Karar kurul tarafından onaylandı. — “The decision was approved by the board.”

This is grammatical, but it can sound formal. In ordinary conversation, if the doer matters, an active sentence is usually clearer: Orhan Pamuk romanı yazdı. Turkish passive sentences most often omit the doer because omitting it is the point.

Impersonal passives

Turkish can passivize some verbs even when there is no object to promote to subject. The result is an impersonal statement: it describes an activity without saying who does it.

• Burada çalışılır. — “People work here / One works here.”
• Bu yoldan gidilmez. — “You cannot/should not go by this road.”
• Toplantıda uzun uzun konuşuldu. — “There was a lot of discussion at the meeting.”

English often avoids a literal passive in these cases and uses “people,” “you,” “one,” or an existential phrase such as “there was.” Translate the function, not each suffix mechanically.

Examples in Context

Turkish	English	Note
Kapı saat dokuzda açıldı.	The door was opened at nine.	Completed past event
Bu kitap birçok ülkede okunuyor.	This book is read in many countries.	Ongoing or general present
Yeni sonuçlar yarın açıklanacak.	The new results will be announced tomorrow.	Future passive
Paket henüz gönderilmedi.	The package has not been sent yet.	Negation follows the passive suffix
Burada sigara içilmez.	Smoking is not allowed here.	Rule or prohibition
Türkiye’de Türkçe konuşulur.	Turkish is spoken in Turkey.	General fact
Bu kelime nasıl okunur?	How is this word pronounced?	Literally, “How is this word read?”
Yemek kısık ateşte pişirilir.	The dish is cooked over low heat.	Recipe or instruction style
Başvurular internet üzerinden yapılabilir.	Applications can be made online.	Passive plus ability
Sorun kısa sürede çözüldü.	The problem was solved quickly.	Doer is not important
Müzede fotoğraf çekilmez.	Photography is not allowed in the museum.	Impersonal passive on a notice
Dün gece sokakta çok gürültü yapıldı.	A lot of noise was made in the street last night.	Impersonal event
Rapor uzmanlar tarafından hazırlandı.	The report was prepared by specialists.	Named agent with tarafından
Toplantının iptal edildiği söylendi.	It was said that the meeting had been cancelled.	Passive inside a longer clause

Common Mistakes

Adding the passive suffix after the tense

• Wrong: açtı-ıl
• Right: aç-ıl-dı
• Why: Voice is formed close to the verb stem. Add the passive first, then negation and tense: stem + passive + tense.

Using -n after every consonant

• Wrong: yazınmak for “to be written”
• Right: yazılmak
• Why: Most consonant-final stems take -(I)l. -(I)n is used after stems ending in l, while vowel-final stems take -n.

Keeping the accusative ending on the new subject

• Wrong: Mektubu yazıldı. when you mean “The letter was written.”
• Right: Mektup yazıldı.
• Why: Mektup is now the subject, not a definite direct object, so it does not take accusative -u. The form Mektubu yazıldı needs a different context, for example “His/her letter was written,” where -u is a possessive ending rather than accusative.

Translating every Turkish passive with English “be”

• Awkward: “Here, cigarettes are not smoked.”
• Natural: Burada sigara içilmez. — “Smoking is not allowed here.”
• Why: Turkish passive forms often express rules or general behavior. Natural English may use “people,” “you,” “allowed,” or another construction.

Naming the agent when an active sentence would be simpler

• Heavy: Kahve benim tarafımdan yapıldı. — “The coffee was made by me.”
• More natural in conversation: Kahveyi ben yaptım. — “I made the coffee.”
• Why: tarafından is useful in formal or contrastive contexts, but active wording is normally better when the doer is central.

Assuming every -n- form is passive

• Misreading: treating yıkandı only as “was washed”
• Possible intended meaning: Yıkandı. — “He/she washed” or “He/she had a wash.”
• Why: Passive and reflexive forms can look alike, and some verbs have established meanings of their own. Use the participants and the wider context, not the suffix alone.

Usage Notes

Passive forms are extremely common on signs and in public instructions. Negative forms in the broad present (often called the aorist) frequently express prohibition: Girilmez “No entry,” Dokunulmaz “Do not touch,” Park edilmez “No parking.” These are not merely descriptions of what usually does not happen; context gives them the force of a rule.

Recipes and procedures also favor the passive because the sequence matters more than the cook or operator: Soğanlar doğranır, yağda kavrulur ve su eklenir (“The onions are chopped, fried in oil, and water is added”). English recipes often use commands—“Chop the onions”—so a good translation may change the voice.

News and formal writing use the passive to keep attention on reported events or to avoid committing to a named source: Üç kişi gözaltına alındı (“Three people were detained”), Yeni bir düzenleme yapılacağı bildirildi (“It was announced that a new regulation would be introduced”). This can sound neutral, official, or deliberately vague about responsibility.

Not every form that looks passive should be translated as an English passive. Some passive-derived verbs are common lexical items with their own everyday meanings. açılmak can mean “to open” intransitively, as in Mağaza saat onda açılıyor (“The store opens at ten”); kırılmak can mean “to break” or figuratively “to feel hurt/offended”; bulunmak often means “to be located” or “to be present.” Learn frequent forms in whole sentences.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

Passive and reflexive overlap

The passive -(I)n and the reflexive suffix -(I)n have the same shape. A reflexive says that the subject acts on itself; a passive backgrounds the doer. Compare Çocuk yıkandı (“The child washed/had a wash”) with Araba yıkandı (“The car was washed”). World knowledge usually resolves the difference. Some forms remain genuinely ambiguous without context.

More than one voice suffix

Turkish can combine voice suffixes. In particular, causative forms—forms meaning “make or have someone do something”—may then be passivized:

• yaz-dır-ıl-mak — “to be made to write” or, depending on context, “to be caused to be written”
• temizle-t-il-mek — “to be made to clean / to be had cleaned”

The exact interpretation depends on the verb and the people involved. At B1, focus first on identifying each layer from left to right: stem, causative, passive, then tense. Production of heavily stacked forms can wait until the causative system is familiar.

Passive clauses inside noun-like structures

Turkish often turns a whole clause into a noun-like unit with endings such as -DIK. A passive verb can occur inside that unit:

• Toplantının ertelendiğini duydum. — “I heard that the meeting had been postponed.”
• Ürünün Türkiye’de üretildiği yazıyor. — “It says that the product is made in Turkey.”

The passive remains next to the stem: ertele-n-diğ-i-ni, üret-il-diğ-i. The later endings belong to the larger subordinate structure.

Style and responsibility

Because a passive can hide the doer, it is useful but not automatically neutral. Hata yapıldı (“A mistake was made”) avoids saying who made it. In official, political, or workplace language, notice whether the omitted agent is genuinely irrelevant or whether the wording shifts responsibility out of view. Clear writing may require an active sentence when accountability matters.

Practice Tips

1. Build forms in layers. Take five common stems—yap-, yaz-, gör-, bekle-, al-—and say a passive past, negative past, present progressive, and future form for each: yapıldı, yapılmadı, yapılıyor, yapılacak.
2. Collect real notices. Look for Girilmez, İçilmez, Dokunulmaz, Kullanılmaz and ask what natural English notice would express the same rule. This trains meaning rather than word-for-word translation.
3. Transform active sentences. Start with Ayşe raporu hazırladı. Remove or demote the doer, remove the object’s accusative ending, and passivize the verb: Rapor hazırlandı. Then add the doer back with Ayşe tarafından only if it is worth mentioning.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Past Tense (-di) — helps you recognize forms such as açıldı and yazılmadı.
• Next step: Causative Voice — shows how Turkish expresses making or having someone do an action and how voice suffixes can combine.
• Next step: Reflexive Voice — important because reflexive and passive -(I)n forms can look identical.
• Advanced connection: Formal/Official Language — develops the passive patterns common in announcements, reports, and bureaucratic prose.