Passive Voice in Turkish

Overview

The passive voice, called edilgen çatı in Turkish, is formed by adding a suffix to the verb stem that shifts the focus from the doer to the action or the recipient. While English forms the passive with "to be" plus a past participle ("The door was opened"), Turkish achieves it with a single suffix: -il/-ıl/-ul/-ül after consonants, or -n after vowels.

At the B1 level, understanding the passive is important because Turkish uses it more frequently than English does. Beyond describing actions done to someone or something, the Turkish passive serves as a powerful tool for making impersonal statements, expressing general rules, and describing habitual or cultural practices. Signs, regulations, proverbs, and formal announcements are full of passive constructions.

The passive in Turkish is also the gateway to understanding Turkish voice suffixes in general — causative, reflexive, and reciprocal. These voice suffixes can even be stacked together, making Turkish verb morphology remarkably expressive.

How It Works

Formation Rules

The passive suffix depends on the final sound of the verb stem:

Stem Ends In	Passive Suffix	Example	Passive Form
Consonant (most verbs)	-il/-ıl/-ul/-ül	yap- (do)	yapılmak
Vowel	-n	ye- (eat)	yenmek
-l	-in/-ın/-un/-ün	bul- (find)	bulunmak

Vowel Harmony for Consonant-Ending Stems

Last Vowel	Suffix	Example
e, i	-il	sev- → sevilmek (to be loved)
a, ı	-ıl	yap- → yapılmak (to be done)
o, u	-ul	oku- → okunmak (to be read)
ö, ü	-ül	gör- → görülmek (to be seen)

Common Passive Verbs

Active	Passive	English
yapmak (to do)	yapılmak	to be done
açmak (to open)	açılmak	to be opened
kapatmak (to close)	kapatılmak	to be closed
sevmek (to love)	sevilmek	to be loved
görmek (to see)	görülmek	to be seen
yemek (to eat)	yenmek	to be eaten
söylemek (to say)	söylenmek	to be said
bulmak (to find)	bulunmak	to be found
satmak (to sell)	satılmak	to be sold
kullanmak (to use)	kullanılmak	to be used

Conjugation Example (yapılmak — to be done)

Tense	Example	Translation
Present continuous	yapılıyor	it is being done
Aorist	yapılır	it is (generally) done
Past (-di)	yapıldı	it was done
Future	yapılacak	it will be done
Reported past (-miş)	yapılmış	it was apparently done

Impersonal Passive

Turkish can make almost any verb passive, even intransitive ones, to create impersonal statements:

Turkish	Literal	Natural English
Burada sigara içilmez.	Smoking is not smoked here.	No smoking here.
Türkçe konuşulur.	Turkish is spoken.	Turkish is spoken (here).
Bu konuda çok tartışıldı.	It was much argued on this topic.	This topic was much debated.
Burada yüzülmez.	It is not swum here.	No swimming here.

Agent Marking (tarafından)

When you need to mention who performed the action, use tarafından (by):

• Bu kitap Orhan Pamuk tarafından yazıldı. — This book was written by Orhan Pamuk.

However, in everyday Turkish, the agent is usually omitted. The passive is most commonly used precisely when the doer is unknown, unimportant, or obvious from context.

Examples in Context

Turkish	English	Note
Kapı açıldı.	The door was opened.	Basic passive
Burada sigara içilmez.	Smoking is not allowed here.	Impersonal rule
Türkçe konuşulur.	Turkish is spoken.	General statement
Yemek hazırlandı.	The food was prepared.	Agent unknown/unimportant
Bu söz çok söylenir.	This saying is often said.	Habitual passive
Mektup gönderildi.	The letter was sent.	Completed action
Toplantı iptal edildi.	The meeting was cancelled.	Formal announcement
Bu ülkede çay çok içilir.	A lot of tea is drunk in this country.	Cultural generalization
Bilet satıldı.	The ticket was sold.	Transaction
İş bitirilecek.	The work will be finished.	Future passive
Proje onaylandı.	The project was approved.	Formal/business
Burada park edilmez.	No parking here.	Prohibition sign

Common Mistakes

Using -il After Vowels

• Wrong: Yeilmek or Yesilmek
• Right: Yenmek
• Why: When the verb stem ends in a vowel (ye-), the passive suffix is -n, not -il. This is a fundamental formation rule.

Using -il After -l Stems

• Wrong: Bulilmak
• Right: Bulunmak
• Why: When the stem already ends in -l (bul-), using -il would create an awkward double-l. Instead, use -in/-ın/-un/-ün.

Overusing Tarafından

• Wrong: Yemek annem tarafından yapıldı. (in casual speech)
• Right: Yemeği annem yaptı. (active voice, more natural for casual speech)
• Why: Turkish reserves the passive with tarafından for formal contexts (official documents, news, academic writing). In casual speech, use the active voice when the agent is known.

Forgetting Impersonal Passive is Possible

• Wrong: Struggling to translate "No swimming here" with complex structures
• Right: Burada yüzülmez.
• Why: Turkish can passivize even intransitive verbs for impersonal statements. This is one of the most useful features of Turkish passive and has no direct equivalent in English.

Usage Notes

The impersonal passive is one of the most distinctively Turkish uses of this voice. Where English might say "People speak Turkish here" or "One speaks Turkish here," Turkish simply says Burada Türkçe konuşulur. This impersonal passive appears on signs, in rules, and in general statements about how things are done.

The passive with the aorist negative (-mez/-maz) is the standard way to express prohibitions on signs: Girilmez (No entry), İçilmez (Not drinkable), Park edilmez (No parking).

Many common Turkish words are actually passive or reflexive forms that have taken on their own lexicalized meanings: açılmak can mean "to open" (intransitive — the door opens) as well as "to be opened." This blur between passive and intransitive is a natural feature of Turkish.

In formal and bureaucratic Turkish, the passive is heavily used to create an impersonal, official tone. Government documents, academic papers, and news reports favor passive constructions.

Practice Tips

• Look at Turkish signs and notices — they are full of passive forms. Try to identify the base verb behind each passive form you see.
• Practice converting active sentences to passive: Ali kapıyı açtı (Ali opened the door) → Kapı açıldı (The door was opened). Start with simple sentences and build complexity.
• Make a list of impersonal passives for rules and general statements: Burada yüzülür (Swimming is done here), Bu yol kullanılmaz (This road is not used). These patterns are highly practical.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Past Tense (-di) — basic verb conjugation needed before learning voice changes
• Next steps: Causative Voice — making someone else do the action
• Next steps: Reflexive Voice — doing the action to oneself
• Next steps: Formal/Official Language — passive voice in formal registers