Dusty, rusty, fragile: where qualities come from
Qualities in Turkish are hardly ever learned one at a time. They are assembled from nouns and verbs by tails, and the tail tells you more than a dictionary would. For example: “Bahçedeki kapı paslı” — The gate in the garden is rusty. A rule from the Turkish course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
Qualities in Turkish are hardly ever learned one at a time. They are assembled from nouns and verbs by tails, and the tail tells you more than a dictionary would.
-lı is with this: toz (dust) → tozlu, dusty; pas (rust) → paslı, rusty. The vowel of the tail bends to the last vowel of the word: not tozlı but tozlu.
-sız is its even partner, without this: pürüzlü (rough) and pürüzsüz (smooth) stand on the same root.
-gan/-kan is prone to this, and it comes off a verb: kırılmak → kırılgan, fragile; yapışmak → yapışkan, sticky. The trap is a voiceless consonant before it: there the tail hardens into -kan, not -gan.
Table
| the tail | what it means | the base | the adjective |
|---|---|---|---|
| -lı / -lu | with it | toz — dust | tozlu — dusty |
| -lı | with it | pas — rust | paslı — rusty |
| -lü | with it | pürüz — roughness | pürüzlü — rough |
| -süz | without it | pürüz | pürüzsüz — smooth |
| -gan | prone to it | kırılmak — to break | kırılgan — fragile |
| -kan | prone to it | yapışmak — to stick | yapışkan — sticky |
| -mış | already so | yıpranmak — to wear out | yıpranmış — worn out |
By example
- Bahçedeki kapı paslıThe gate in the garden is rusty
- Kutuda kırılgan eşya varThere are fragile things in the box
- Perdeler güneşten solmuşThe curtains have faded in the sun
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
Dusty, rusty, fragile: how does it work in Turkish?
Qualities in Turkish are hardly ever learned one at a time. They are assembled from nouns and verbs by tails, and the tail tells you more than a dictionary would.
What does it look like in an example sentence Turkish?
“Bahçedeki kapı paslı” — The gate in the garden is rusty. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.