No prepositions — endings instead

English carries the roles in little words: at home, from home, to home. Kazakh loads them onto the noun itself: one word grows different tails, and the order of the tails is strict. For example: “Алматыда тұрамын” — I live in Almaty. A rule from the Kazakh course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.

Updated September 1, 2026 · Lingofly

How it works

English carries the roles in little words: at home, from home, to home. Kazakh loads them onto the noun itself: one word grows different tails, and the order of the tails is strict.

üy — house → üyde — at home → üyden — from the house → üyge — toward the house.

The tails stack: üy-ler-im-de — "in my houses". Read long words in chunks, left to right, not as a whole — then they stop being frightening. English does the same thing silently with -s, -'s and -ing; here every piece is audible.

Table

No prepositions — endings instead
PersonEndingExampleTranslation
men-myn / -byn / -pynmen studentpinI am a student
sen-syñ / -siñsen studentsiñyou are a student
siz-syz / -sizsiz studentsizyou are a student (polite)
olno endingol studenthe or she is a student
biz-myz / -byz / -pizbiz studentpizwe are students
sender-syñdar / -siñdersender studentsiñderyou are students
olarno endingolar studentthey are students

By example

  • Алматыда тұрамын
    I live in Almaty
  • Үйге барамын
    I am going home
  • Ресейден келдім
    I came from Russia

How the rule settles in your head

A rule is not memorized from an explanation. It is memorized from an attempt to use it and a mistake — that is why the app delivers it mixed in with words, not as a separate lesson: it resurfaces exactly where you forgot it.

Frequently asked

Does Kazakh have cases?

English carries the roles in little words: at home, from home, to home. Kazakh loads them onto the noun itself: one word grows different tails, and the order of the tails is strict.

Why Kazakh has no prepositions?

üy — house → üyde — at home → üyden — from the house → üyge — toward the house.

How to say at home, from home, homeward in Kazakh?

The tails stack: üy-ler-im-de — "in my houses". Read long words in chunks, left to right, not as a whole — then they stop being frightening. English does the same thing silently with -s, -'s and -ing; here every piece is audible.

Kazakh endings -de, -den and -ge for prepositions?

The tails stack: üy-ler-im-de — "in my houses". Read long words in chunks, left to right, not as a whole — then they stop being frightening. English does the same thing silently with -s, -'s and -ing; here every piece is audible.

What does it look like in an example sentence Kazakh?

“Алматыда тұрамын” — I live in Almaty. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.

Next

Test the rule on examplesPractice