# Turkish/Postpositions

Turkish has many postpositions, which are used the same way as prepositions in English. Unlike in English, which postposition you can use depends on the noun's case.

### With genitive and absolute

The following are used after the genitive pronouns benim, bizim, senin, sizin, onun, and kimin, and after the absolute case of other pronouns and nouns:
* gibi "like, as";
* için "for";
* ile "with";
* kadar (Arabic) "as much as".
In colloquial speech; gibi, ile and kadar may be used with nominative pronouns as well, but this is to be avoided in written language.
For example, a certain corporation may describe its soft-drink as
However, another corporation may say of itself
Thus the label of postposition does not adequately describe gibi; Turkish vocabulary#Schaaik proposes calling it a predicate, because of its use in establishing similarity:
The particle ile can be both comitative and instrumental; it can also join the preceding word as a suffix:
here the literal translation "We spoke with Deniz" may be incorrect (I spoke : konuştum);
Pronouns are supposed to be used in genitive form, but they are often not so in colloquial speech.

### With dative

Used after nouns and pronouns in the dative case are:
* doğru "towards";
* göre "according to";
* kadar "as far as";
* karşı "against".

### With ablative

* önce/sonra "before/after";
* beri "since";
* itibaren (Arabic) "from…on";
* dolayı "because of".

### With absolute

The following postpositions are case-forms of nouns with the third-person possessional suffix; they can be understood as forming nominal compounds, always indefinite, with the preceding words (see also Turkish grammar#Nouns):
* bakımdan "from the point of view of" (bak- "look");
* hakkında "concerning, about" (hak "right, justice");
* tarafından "by the agency of" (taraf "side");
* yüzünden "because of" (yüz "face").

## References

Books of use in the writing of this article include:
* Grammars:
** Kaya Can, Yabancılar İçin Türkçe-İngilizce Açıklama Türkçe Dersleri, Ankara: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Fen ve Edebiyat Fakültesi, 1991. "Turkish lessons with Turkish-English explanation[s] for foreigners".
** G. L. Lewis, Turkish Grammar, Oxford University Press, 1967; second edition, 2000. [Structural differences between the two editions are not named in the second, but appear to be as follows: IV,4 "-çe", VI,7 "Arithmetical terms", XI,16 "-diğinde", and XII,25 "tâ" are new, while XV,1 "Nominal sentences and verbal sentences" in the first edition was dropped.
** Eran Oyal, Sözcüklerin Anlamsal ve Yapısal Özellikleri: Konular, Örnekler, Sorular, Açıklama Yanıtlar (ÖSS ve ÖYS için Dil Yeteneği Dizisi 2), Ankara, 1986. "Semantic and syntactic properties of words: subjects, examples, questions, answers with explanation (language ability for the university entrance examinations, 2)".
** Atilla Özkırımlı, Türk Dili, Dil ve Anlatım, İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi Yayınları 2001. "The Turkish language, language, and expression".
** Bengisu Rona, Turkish in Three Months, Hugo's Language Books Limited, 1989.
** Gerjan van Schaaik, The Bosphorus Papers: Studies in Turkish Grammar 1996–1999, İstanbul: Boğaziçi University Press, 2001.
* Dictionaries:
** İsmet Zeki Eyuboğlu, Türk Dilinin Etimoloji Sözlüğü, expanded and revised second edition, 1991.
** H.-J. Kornrumpf, Langenscheidt's Universal Dictionary: English-Turkish, Turkish-English, Istanbul; new edition revised and updated by Resuhi Akdikmen, 1989.
** Redhouse Yeni Türkçe-İngilizce Sözlük. New Redhouse Turkish-English Dictionary. Redhouse Yayınevi, İstanbul, 1968 (12th ed., 1991).
** Redhouse Büyük Elsözlüğü İngilizce-Türkçe, Türkçe-İngilizce. The Larger Redhouse Portable Dictionary English-Turkish, Turkish-English. Redhouse Yayınevi, İstanbul 1997 (9th printing, 1998).
** Türk Dil Kurumu [Turkish Language Foundation], Türkçe Sözlük, expanded 7th edition, 1983.

## External links

* Turkish dictionaries at Curlie
* Turkish language at Curlie