Above, across, past: Turkish has no prepositions
English handles space with small words in front of the noun: 'on the table', 'across the road', 'past the house'. Turkish cannot do that at all. It builds place in two ways, and both come AFTER the noun. For example: “Masa odanın ortasında duruyor” — The table stands in the middle of the room. A rule from the Turkish course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
English handles space with small words in front of the noun: 'on the table', 'across the road', 'past the house'. Turkish cannot do that at all. It builds place in two ways, and both come AFTER the noun.
The first way — a case on the noun itself. Three cases answer three questions: -de/-da — where (masada — on the table), -e/-a — to where (masaya — onto the table), -den/-dan — from where (masadan — off the table). This is the whole of lesson u51-l1: üstte (on top) is üst plus 'where', altta (below) is alt plus 'where', yana (to the side) is yan plus 'to where', uzaktan (from afar) is uzak plus 'from where'. Such a word keeps declining like any noun: place made by an ending, not by a separate word.
The second way — a service noun after the first one. 'In the middle of the room' is odanın ortasında: the first noun goes into the genitive (odanın — of the room), the second takes the possessive 'its' and the needed case (orta-sı-nda — in its middle). This is how ortasında (in the middle of), yanında (beside), içinden (through), kenarında (at the edge of), arkasında (behind), önünde (in front of) are built — English compound prepositions like 'in front of' do the same work. The word order is the mirror image of English: the little word trails, it does not lead.
The third, separate case — postpositions with a case. doğru (toward) demands the to-case: bana doğru. göre (according to) also the to-case: bana göre. sonra and önce — the from-case: benden sonra. The case is not chosen by meaning; it is glued to the postposition and learned together with it.
Why this is one note and not three. The learner's mistake is always the same: putting the word in front and leaving the noun bare — doğru bana instead of bana doğru. See once that Turkish assembles place from right to left, and unit 51 stops being a list of exceptions.
Table
| in English | how it is built | in Turkish | the case on the first noun |
|---|---|---|---|
| on top | üst + where | üstte | — |
| to the side | yan + to where | yana | — |
| from afar | uzak + from where | uzaktan | — |
| in the middle of the room | orta + its + where | odanın ortasında | the genitive |
| past the stop | yan + its + from where | durağın yanından | the genitive |
| through the forest | iç + its + from where | ormanın içinden | the genitive |
| toward me | the postposition doğru | bana doğru | the to-case |
By example
- Masa odanın ortasında duruyorThe table stands in the middle of the room
- Bir adam bize doğru geliyorA man is coming toward us
- Otobüs durağın yanından geçtiThe bus drove past the stop
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
Above, across, past: how does it work in Turkish?
English handles space with small words in front of the noun: 'on the table', 'across the road', 'past the house'. Turkish cannot do that at all. It builds place in two ways, and both come AFTER the noun.
What does it look like in an example sentence Turkish?
“Masa odanın ortasında duruyor” — The table stands in the middle of the room. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.