Basic Postpositions in Turkish

In Brief

Turkish usually puts relationship words after the noun phrase: ev için means “for the house,” with için following ev. Some postpositions use a plain noun, while others require a particular case (a noun ending that marks its role). With pronouns, forms such as ben often change: benim için “for me,” benimle “with me,” and bana göre “in my opinion.”

Overview

English normally uses prepositions before a noun: for the house, with you, on the table. Turkish commonly uses postpositions, words placed after the noun phrase: ev için, seninle, masa üzerinde. Learning to look to the right of the noun is therefore one of the first major word-order adjustments for an English-speaking learner.

This topic begins at A1 because a small group of postpositions appears constantly in everyday Turkish. You need için to give a purpose or beneficiary, ile to say “with” or “by means of,” gibi for similarity, and kadar for limits and comparisons. Location expressions such as üzerinde also behave in a postposition-like way.

Position alone is not the whole story. The word before a postposition may be unmarked, may carry a case ending, or—especially when it is a personal pronoun—may take the genitive form (the form often corresponding to English “my/your/his”). The best habit is to learn each postposition together with its required pattern, not as an isolated translation.

How It Works

The basic word order

The beginner pattern is:

noun phrase + postposition

• çocuk için — for the child
• arkadaş ile — with a friend
• senin gibi — like you
• akşama kadar — until the evening

The whole postpositional phrase normally comes before the verb:

• Çocuk için yemek yaptım. — I made food for the child.
• Otobüsle işe gidiyorum. — I go to work by bus.

Turkish word order can move phrases for focus, but this internal order stays together: the noun comes before its postposition.

Core patterns at a glance

Here “plain noun” means a noun without a case ending added specifically by the postposition. It can still have a plural or possessive ending.

Postposition or form	Core meaning	Pattern with an ordinary noun	Typical pronoun pattern
için	for; in order to	plain noun + için	genitive + için: benim için
ile / -(y)le, -(y)la	with; by means of; and	plain noun + ile or attached form	genitive-based attached forms: benimle
gibi	like; as	plain noun + gibi	genitive + gibi: senin gibi
kadar	as…as; up to, until	pattern depends on meaning	genitive in comparisons: onun kadar
üzerinde	on; on top of; concerning	noun + üzerinde, often a genitive construction	onun üzerinde

için: “for” and purpose

With an ordinary noun, için follows the plain noun phrase:

• ev için — for the house
• çocuklar için — for the children
• doğum günün için — for your birthday

Personal pronouns normally take the genitive forms before için:

English	Turkish
for me	benim için
for you (singular, informal)	senin için
for him/her/it	onun için
for us	bizim için
for you (plural or polite)	sizin için
for them	onlar için / onların için

Both onlar için and onların için occur; onlar için is often the simpler, more neutral choice for “for them.”

İçin can express a beneficiary, intended use, reason, or goal:

• Bu hediye Ayşe için. — This gift is for Ayşe.
• Sınav için çalışıyorum. — I am studying for the exam.
• Türkçe öğrenmek için buradayım. — I am here in order to learn Turkish.

The last pattern uses an infinitive (a verb form used like “to learn”): öğrenmek için. At beginner level, remember it as “in order to + verb.”

ile and -(y)le/-(y)la: “with,” “by,” and “and”

İle may be written as a separate word, but in everyday Turkish it is very often attached to the preceding word. The attached ending follows vowel harmony:

• after front vowels (e, i, ö, ü): -le
• after back vowels (a, ı, o, u): -la
• after a vowel, insert y: -yle or -yla

Separate	Attached	Meaning
arkadaş ile	arkadaşla	with a friend
otobüs ile	otobüsle	by bus
araba ile	arabayla	by car
Ali ile	Ali’yle	with Ali

The attached form is not a case ending in meaning, even though it is written like a suffix. Proper names take an apostrophe before it: Mert’le, Ankara’yla.

Personal pronouns use special, highly common forms:

Pronoun	With ile	Meaning
ben	benimle	with me
sen	seninle	with you
o	onunla	with him/her/it
biz	bizimle	with us
siz	sizinle	with you
onlar	onlarla	with them

İle can mark companionship (arkadaşımla “with my friend”), an instrument (bıçakla “with a knife”), transport (trenle “by train”), or link two items like English “and” (Ali ile Zeynep).

gibi: similarity

Gibi follows a plain ordinary noun but a genitive personal pronoun:

• çocuk gibi — like a child
• film gibi — like a film
• benim gibi — like me
• senin gibi — like you

It can modify a noun or describe how an action happens:

• Burası saray gibi. — This place is like a palace.
• Çocuk gibi sevindi. — He/She became happy like a child.

Do not automatically copy the English object form in “like me.” Turkish selects benim, not beni: benim gibi.

kadar: extent, endpoint, and comparison

Kadar has several related uses, so the form before it changes with the meaning.

For a physical endpoint, the preceding noun normally takes the dative case (the ending often meaning “to” or “toward”):

• eve kadar — as far as the house
• istasyona kadar — as far as the station

With time expressions, a dative form is also common when the endpoint is viewed as “until”: akşama kadar “until evening,” saat beşe kadar “until five.” Some established time phrases use a plain form, such as şimdiye kadar “until now” and sabah kadar in certain contexts, so learn frequent expressions as complete chunks.

In comparisons, pronouns usually take the genitive:

• senin kadar hızlı — as fast as you
• onun kadar pahalı — as expensive as that/it

With quantities, kadar means “about” or “approximately”: on kişi kadar “about ten people.”

üzerinde: “on” and “on top of”

Üzerinde comes from üzer “upper surface” plus possessive and locative endings. It is therefore more literally a relational location form than a simple one-piece postposition. For beginners, however, it is practical to learn the whole expression as “on/on top of.”

• masa üzerinde — on the table / over the table
• masanın üzerinde — on top of the table
• onun üzerinde — on it/him/her

The full possessive construction masanın üzerinde is explicit: masanın is genitive (“of the table”), and üzerinde contains the third-person possessive ending. The shorter masa üzerinde is also common, especially when the relation is treated like a compound or general location. For a specific object physically resting on a specific table, masanın üzerinde is often the clearest choice.

Examples in Context

Turkish	English	Note
Bu oda misafirler için.	This room is for guests.	Plain noun + için
Senin için kahve yaptım.	I made coffee for you.	Genitive pronoun + için
Türkçe konuşmak için pratik yapıyorum.	I practise in order to speak Turkish.	Infinitive + için
Kardeşimle sinemaya gidiyorum.	I am going to the cinema with my sibling.	Attached ile; companionship
Her gün otobüsle işe gidiyor.	He/She goes to work by bus every day.	ile expresses transport
Ekmeği bıçakla kestim.	I cut the bread with a knife.	ile expresses an instrument
Ali ile Ece burada.	Ali and Ece are here.	Separate ile links two people
Bu ev saray gibi.	This house is like a palace.	Plain noun + gibi
O da benim gibi Türkçe öğreniyor.	He/She is also learning Turkish, like me.	Genitive pronoun + gibi
İstasyona kadar yürüdük.	We walked as far as the station.	Dative endpoint + kadar
Akşama kadar çalışacağım.	I will work until the evening.	Time endpoint
Ayşe senin kadar hızlı koşuyor.	Ayşe runs as fast as you.	Comparison with a genitive pronoun
Masanın üzerinde iki kitap var.	There are two books on the table.	Full genitive location construction
Telefon masa üzerinde.	The phone is on the table.	Shorter compound-like location phrase

Common Mistakes

Putting the relationship word before the noun

• Wrong: için sen
• Right: senin için
• Why: Unlike English “for you,” Turkish places için after its noun phrase. A personal pronoun also takes the genitive form here.

Using the basic pronoun before için or gibi

• Wrong: ben için, sen gibi
• Right: benim için, senin gibi
• Why: Personal pronouns normally use genitive forms before these postpositions. Learn the combinations as chunks.

Treating attached ile like a fixed ending

• Wrong: araba-le, Ali-le
• Right: arabayla, Ali’yle
• Why: The ending follows vowel harmony, and a linking y appears after a vowel. Proper names also require an apostrophe.

Using the accusative before gibi

• Wrong: Beni gibi konuşuyor.
• Right: Benim gibi konuşuyor.
• Why: English “like me” may feel object-like, but Turkish requires the genitive benim in this comparison.

Forgetting the dative endpoint with kadar

• Wrong: İstasyon kadar yürüdük.
• Right: İstasyona kadar yürüdük.
• Why: When kadar means “as far as” a destination, that endpoint normally takes the dative ending -(y)e/-(y)a.

Translating every “on” with üzerinde

• Wrong: Pazartesi üzerinde görüşürüz.
• Right: Pazartesi görüşürüz.
• Why: Üzerinde describes a spatial surface or, at higher levels, a topic. English uses “on” for days, but Turkish normally uses the day directly.

Usage Notes

The separate form ile is fully correct, but attached -le/-la is extremely common in both speech and writing. The separate form can sound more deliberate and is useful when linking longer phrases. In careful writing, do not put a space before the attached form: write arkadaşımla, not arkadaşım la.

Context decides whether ile means “with,” “by,” or “and.” Annemle geldim means “I came with my mother,” while uçakla geldim means “I came by plane.” With two named items, çay ile kahve means “tea and coffee,” though the conjunction ve is also available.

English prepositions do not map one-to-one onto Turkish postpositions. English “for,” for example, may correspond to için, a case ending, or another construction. Start from the Turkish pattern and intended relationship rather than replacing each English preposition mechanically.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master all of these patterns at A1, but you will meet them frequently later.

Several common postpositions require a specific case. Göre uses the dative: bana göre “according to me/in my opinion,” plana göre “according to the plan.” Rağmen also commonly follows the dative: yağmura rağmen “despite the rain.” Önce and sonra use the ablative (the case often meaning “from”): dersten önce “before the lesson,” işten sonra “after work.” These combinations show why memorising “postposition + required case” is so useful.

Relational location words form a wider system like üzerinde: masanın altında “under the table,” evin önünde “in front of the house,” and okulun yanında “next to the school.” Grammatically, these forms contain possessive and location endings. The genitive marker may be absent in compound-like phrases—compare okulun önünde “in front of the school” with okul önünde “in front of/by the school”—but the full genitive construction is the safest transparent model for a specific possessor.

Üzerinde can also be abstract: Bu konu üzerinde çalışıyoruz means “We are working on this topic.” Likewise, için can introduce a reason, especially with a completed verb form: Geç kaldığım için özür dilerim “I’m sorry because I was late.” That clause structure belongs beyond the beginner core, even though the familiar word için remains.

Finally, kadar participates in more advanced degree expressions: Bu kadar “this much,” ne kadar? “how much/how far?”, and geldiği kadar “as much as/as far as he or she came,” depending on context. Its basic idea is an extent or boundary, which connects these apparently different uses.

Practice Tips

1. Learn complete pairs. Make cards for benim için, senin gibi, benimle, bana göre, and evden sonra. Include the required pronoun or case form, not just the postposition.
2. Convert English order consciously. Take short phrases such as “with my friend,” “for the exam,” and “as far as the station.” Mark the relationship first, then rebuild them in Turkish order: arkadaşımla, sınav için, istasyona kadar.
3. Practise ile aloud. Attach it to ten everyday nouns and check vowel harmony: trenle, arabayla, otobüsle, kalemle, telefonla. Then use each form in a sentence.

Related Concepts

No prerequisite or downstream concepts are specified for this grammar item. Useful topics to study alongside it are Turkish noun cases, possessive constructions, vowel harmony, and the infinitive; together they explain why the word before a postposition changes form.