What a thing is for and what it is made of: -lık and “-den yapılmış”
In a shop two questions decide everything: what is this made of, and what is it for. Turkish answers them with different builds. For example: “Bu çanta hakiki deriden yapılmış” — This bag is made of genuine leather. A rule from the Turkish course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
In a shop two questions decide everything: what is this made of, and what is it for. Turkish answers them with different builds.
Material stands right in front of the thing, with no tails at all: cam bardak, a glass tumbler. For more detail there is -den yapılmış: Bu çanta hakiki deriden yapılmış.
Purpose comes from -lık, the thing for it: göz → gözlük, glasses. The same tail turns a quality into a name of that quality: yalnız → yalnızlık, loneliness. What it attached to tells them apart.
The third job of -lık is counting, and in a shop it is the commonest. beş liralık is worth five liras, and İki kişilik bir masa var mı? asks for a table for two. The trap is mixing it with the owner link: okul müdürü is the principal of the school.
Table
| the assembly | what it means | example |
|---|---|---|
| material + thing | what it is made of | cam bardak — a glass made of glass |
| -den yapılmış | made of | yünden yapılmış — made of wool |
| thing + -lık | the thing for it | göz → gözlük — glasses |
| quality + -lık | the property as a noun | yalnız → yalnızlık — loneliness |
| number + -lık | worth that much | beş liralık — worth five liras |
| -lı / -sız | with it or without it | şekerli / şekersiz |
| the -i link (do not confuse) | possession | okul müdürü — the principal of the school |
By example
- Bu çanta hakiki deriden yapılmışThis bag is made of genuine leather
- İki kişilik bir masa var mı?Is there a table for two?
- Bir haftalık alışveriş yaptıkWe did a week’s worth of shopping
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
What a thing is for and what it is made of: how does it work in Turkish?
In a shop two questions decide everything: what is this made of, and what is it for. Turkish answers them with different builds.
What does it look like in an example sentence Turkish?
“Bu çanta hakiki deriden yapılmış” — This bag is made of genuine leather. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.