We talk and write to communicate. But does communication only consist of exchanging information? Do the details, precision, and clarity of the information matter? How about sharing ideas or conveying feelings through conversations?

Can a simple sentence with only a subject and a verb—and maybe even an adjective—always lead to clear communication?

Not necessarily! Some of those details, clarity, and feelings are hidden in what we call “adverbs.”

Today we’ll talk about Turkish adverbs; their functionality, types, and placement in sentences. By the time you finish reading this article, you’ll have learned around 100 basic adverbs in Turkish.

Table of Contents

1. General Info on Adverbs
2. Adverbs Based on Their Functions and Meanings
3. Adverbs Based on Their Structures
4. Where Do Adverbs Go in a Sentence?
5. Get More Comfortable with Adverbs via TurkishClass101

1. General Info on Adverbs

Let’s start with the definition of an adverb. An adverb is a word that describes a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a phrase, or a clause. However, it doesn’t modify a noun.

An adverb also gives information about the manner, place, time, frequency, or certainty of the action represented by the verb. To better explain this, I would like to rephrase my question from earlier: 

Are nouns, verbs, and adjectives sufficient to form sentences that get all of the feelings, details, and messages across? 

For example, if someone said “I walked,” wouldn’t you want to ask where, when, how, or why they walked? Well, yes, for better communication, we need the answers to these kinds of questions. This is what adverbs do.

Now, let’s see what types of adverbs there are in Turkish. Adverbs in Turkish are classified as follows:

• Adverbs based on their functions and meanings
• Adverbs based on their structures

Now, let’s dive a little deeper into this before moving on to our Turkish adverbs list.

2. Adverbs Based on Their Functions and Meanings

The Turkish adverbs that fall under this category are:

• Turkish adverbs of manner
• Turkish adverbs of time
• Turkish adverbs of place/direction
• Turkish adverbs of quantity
• Turkish adverbs of frequency
• Turkish adverbs of interrogation
• Adverbs that indicate manner/situation

Turkish adverbs of manner show how an action is executed. This category has seven sub-categories:

1. Qualitative Adverbs

In Turkish, some adverbs can be formed from adjectives by adding a suffix. Below is a table that shows the rules for determining the correct suffixes:

		Last syllable of the adjective has “a, ı, o, u “		Last syllable of the adjective has “e, i, ö, ü”
Adjective	Adverb	If the adjective ends with “f, s, t, k, ç, ş, h, p”	If the adjective ends with other letters	If the adjective ends with “f, s, t, k, ç, ş, h, p”	If the adjective ends with other letters
Yavaş “Slow”	Yavaşça “Slowly”	-ça
Saygısız “Disrespectful”	Saygısızca “Disrespectfully”		-ca
Nazik “Kind”	Nazikçe “Kindly”			-çe
Dikkatli “Careful”	Dikkatlice “Carefully”				-ce

Sometimes the adjective and the adverb can be the same word. For example:

•  Hızlı (“Fast” / “Rapidly” / “Speedily”)

Now, it’s time to learn more qualitative adverbs in Turkish:

No.	Adverbs in Turkish and English	Their Usage
1	İyi “Well”	Sınava iyi hazırlandım. “I was well-prepared for the exam.”
2	Doğru “Correctly”	Numarayı doğru yazın lütfen. “Please write the number correctly.”
3	Kolayca “Easily”	Bu problemi kolayca çözdüm. “I solved this problem easily.”
4	Sessizce “Quietly”	Bana sessizce yaklaştı. “He/she/it approached me quietly.”
5	Hafifçe “Lightly”	Omuzuma hafifçe dokundu. “He/she touched my shoulder lightly.”
6	Gizlice “Secretly”	Hediyeyi gizlice paketledim. “I wrapped the present secretly.”
7	Basitçe “Simply”	Konuyu basitçe özetledim. “I summarized the issue simply.”
8	Açıkça “Frankly” / “Openly” / “Clearly”	Fikrimi açıkça söyledim. “I told my opinion frankly.”
9	Güzelce “Properly”	Ne gördüğünü bana güzelce anlat. “Tell me properly what you saw.”
10	Kibarca “Politely”	Onu kibarca uyardım. “I warned him/her politely.”
11	Sakince “Calmly”	Teklifini sakince reddettim. “I refused his/her proposal calmly.”
12	Rahatça “Comfortably”	Yeni odamda rahatça uyudum. “I slept comfortably in my new room.”

2. Adverbs of Certainty

Here’s a Turkish adverbs list of certainty:

No.	Adverbs in Turkish and English	Their Usage
13	Kesinlikle “Definitely” / “Certainly”	Partiye kesinlikle gelmeyeceğim. “I definitely won’t come to the party.”
14	Hiç “Never”	Japonya’yı hiç görmedim. “I have never seen Japan.”
15	Mutlaka “Absolutely”	O oyunu mutlaka görmelisin. “You must absolutely see that play.”
16	Elbette “For sure”	Elbette geleceğim. “I will come for sure.”
17	Ne olursa olsun “Regardless”	Hava nasıl olursa olsun gideceğim. “I will go regardless of the weather.”
18	Kuşkusuz “Doubtlessly”	Kuşkusuz suçlusun. “You are doubtlessly guilty.”

3. Adverbs of Repetition

Here are some examples of repetitive adverbs in Turkish:

No.	Adverbs in Turkish and English	Their Usage
19	Yine “Again” / “Over” / “Once again”	Yine kaybettim. “I lost again.”
20	Tekrar “Again” / “Repetition”	Adresini tekrar yazmalıyım. “I have to write your address again.”
21	Bir daha “Once more” / “Once again”	Sana bir daha kanmayacağım. “I will not fall for you once again.”
22	İkide bir “Again and again” / “Constantly”	İkide bir düşüyorsun. “You are constantly falling.”
23	Zaman zaman “From time to time” / “Now and then”	Onu zaman zaman arıyorum. “I call him/her from time to time.”

4. Adverbs of Probability

The table below shows examples of Turkish adverbs of probability.

No.	Adverbs in Turkish and English	Their Usage
24	Belki “Maybe”	Belki dönerim. “Maybe I will return.”
25	Muhtemelen “Probably”	Muhtemelen uyuyordur. “He/she/it is probably sleeping.”
26	Sanıyorum ki “I guess”	Sanıyorum ki çalışıyordur. “I guess he/she is working.”

5. Adverbs of Distribution

No.	Adverbs in Turkish and English	Their Usage
27	Teker teker “One by one” / “Individually”	Teker teker saymalısın. “You must count one by one.”
28	Beşer beşer “By fives”	Kutuları beşer beşer dizdim. “I stacked the boxes five by five.”

6. Adverbs of Restriction

No.	Adverbs in Turkish and English	Their Usage
29	Ancak “Merely” / “Solely” / “Only”	Dün ancak bir saat uyuyabildim. “Yesterday, I could only sleep for one hour.”
30	Artık “No longer” / “Anymore”	O artık gelmez. “He/she/it won’t come anymore.”

7. Adverbs of Proximity / Approximation

No.	Adverbs in Turkish and English	Their Usage
31	Yaklaşık “Approximately”	Dün yaklaşık bir saat çalıştım. “Yesterday, I worked approximately one hour.”
32	Hemen hemen “Almost”	İşim hemen hemen iki saat önce bitti. “I was done almost two hours ago.”
33	Aşağı yukarı “More or less” / “Approximately”	Aşağı yukarı beş kilometre yürüdüm. “I walked five kilometers, more or less.”
34	Neredeyse “Almost”	Neredeyse düşüyordum. “I almost fell.”
35	Şöyle böyle “So-so”	Sınav şöyle böyle geçti. “The exam went so-so.”

8. Adverbs that indicate the time of an action

Turkish time adverbs answer the “when” question. Now, are you ready for a list of some Turkish adverbs of time and their usage in sentences?

No.	Adverbs in Turkish and English	Their Usage
36	Dün “Yesterday”	Dün okula gitmedim. “I did not go to school yesterday.”
37	Dün gece “Last night”	Dün gece hiç uyuyamadım. “I could not sleep at all last night.”
38	Bugün “Today”	Bugün alışverişe gideceğim. “I will go shopping today.”
39	Bu sabah “This morning”	Bu sabah çok uykum var. “I’m very sleepy this morning.”
40	Bu gece “Tonight”	Bu gece yemek pişirmeyeceğim. “I will not cook tonight.”
41	Yarın “Tomorrow”	Yarın hastaneye gideceğim. “I will go to the hospital tomorrow.”
42	Gelecek hafta “Next week”	Gelecek hafta kızım mezun oluyor. “My daughter is graduating next week.”
43	Şimdi “Now”	Şimdi sessiz olmalısın. “You have to be quiet now.”
44	Hemen şimdi “Right now”	Hemen şimdi gitmeliyim. “I have to go right now.”
45	Hemen “Immediately”	Hemen gelmelisin. “You have to come immediately.”
46	Önce “Before”	Gitmeden önce beni aramalısın. “You must call me before you go.”
47	Sonra “Later”	İki gün sonra orada olacağım. “I will be there two days later.”
48	Yakın zamanda “Recently”	Ben o filmi yakın zamanda seyrettim. “I watched that movie recently.”
49	Son zamanlarda “Lately”	Son zamanlarda çok yorgunum. “I’m very tired lately.”
50	Yakında “Soon”	Yakında bebeğim olacak. “I will have a baby soon.”
51	Hala “Still”	Seni hala seviyorum. “I still love you.”
52	Henüz “Yet”	Henüz bir karar vermedim. “I have not made a decision yet.”
53	Önce “Ago”	İki yıl önce evlendim. “I got married two years ago.”

9. Adverbs that show place / direction

Turkish adverbs of place answer the “where” question. Here are some examples:

No.	Adverbs in Turkish and English	Their Usage
54	Aşağı “Down”	Merdivenlerden aşağı iniyor. “He/she/it is going down the stairs.”
55	Yukarı “Up”	Yukarı baktı ve gülümsedi. “He/she looked up and smiled.”
56	İçeri “Inside”	İçeri girdi ve ağlamaya başladı. “He/she came inside and started crying.”
57	Dışarı “Outside”	Hadi dışarı çıkalım. “Let’s go outside.”
58	İleri “Forward”	Lütfen ileri gitme. “Please don’t go forward.”
59	Geri “Back”	Lütfen geri gel. “Please come back.”
60	Beri “Near” / “This way”	Beri gel, konuşalım. “Come near me, so we can talk.”

I need your full ATTENTION here, please! There are two things you need to be very careful about in terms of Turkish adverbs of place and direction:

1. Place/direction adverbs do not take inflectional suffixes. If they do, they’re not called adverbs anymore. They become nouns. Now, let’s go over an example:

• İçeri girdim. (“I got inside.”)

The word içeri is an adverb that answers the “where” question.

• İçeriye girdim. (“I got inside.”)

The word içeri gets an inflectional suffix and becomes a noun. Although the meaning stays the same, the function of the word changes.

2. Adverbs have to determine the direction/place of the action performed. They have to relate to the verb. If the adverb is related to a noun, then it’s used as an adjective. Here’s an example:

• Aşağı indim. (“I went down.”)

The word aşağı is a Turkish adverb that answers the “where” question.

•  Aşağı kat satıldı. (“The flat downstairs has been sold.”)

The word aşağı is related to a noun here, so it functions as an adjective, not an adverb.

10. Adverbs that show quantity / measurement

This type of adverb affects the meaning of verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs in terms of quantity and measurement. These words represent numbers, equality, comparison, superiority, and degree. They answer the “how much” and “to what extent” questions.

No.	Adverbs in Turkish and English	Their Usage
61	Az “Little” / “Few / “A bit”	Oraya gelmemize az kaldı. “We are about to arrive there.”
62	Biraz “Some” / “A little”	Biraz bekler misin lütfen? “Can you wait a little, please?”
63	Çok “Much” / “Many” / “Very” / “Too much”	Çok hızlı koştuk. “We ran very fast.”
64	Fazla “Too” / “Too much” / “Too many” / “Over”	Bu gece fazla yedim. “I ate too much tonight.”
65	Pek “Quite” / “So” / “Very much”	Bu tablo pek güzel. “This painting is very nice.”
66	Epey “A great number of” / “A great deal of”	Eviniz epey büyük. “Your house is quite big.”
67	Epeyce “Quite a bit” / “Pretty”	Epeyce hızlısın. “You are pretty fast.”
68	Oldukça “Rather” / “Quite / “A good bit”	O oldukça yakışıklı. “He is quite handsome.”
69	Daha çok “More”	Daha çok çalışmalısın. “You have to study more.”
70	En çok “Most”	En çok çalışan benim. “I’m the one who works the most.”
71	Daha “More”	Daha pahalı bir araba istemiyorum. “I don’t want a more expensive car.”
72	Kadar “As much as” / “As far as” / “As ___ as”	Senin kadar sabırlı değilim. “I’m not as patient as you are.”
73	Bu kadar “This much” / “That much” / “So much”	Bu kadar bekleyemem. “I can’t wait that much.”

I would like to give you another WARNING here.

1. Please do not mix certain quantity adverbs with numeral adjectives. The following example will help you understand this better:

• Fazla stres insanı fazla üzer. (“Too much stress saddens people too much!”)

The very first fazla is an adjective because it’s related to the noun “stress.” The second one is an adverb because it’s related to the verb.

11. Adverbs that indicate frequency

The Turkish adverbs of frequency answer the “how frequently” question. Some linguists cover this category under the title “Adverbs that indicate the time of action.”

Here’s a list of some Turkish adverbs of frequency.

No.	Adverbs in Turkish and English	Their Usage
74	Bazen “Sometimes”	Seni bazen kıskanıyorum. “I sometimes envy you.”
75	Asla “Never”	Geç kalsam bile, asla koşmam. “Even if I’m late, I never run.”
76	Daima “Always”	Seni daima seveceğim. “I will always love you.”
77	Sık sık “Frequently”	Ben oraya sık sık gidiyorum. “I go there frequently.”
78	Nadiren “Rarely”	Seni artık nadiren görebiliyorum. “I can rarely see you.”
79	Her zaman “All the time”	Her zaman gülümsüyorsun. “You are smiling all the time.”
80	Genellikle “Usually”	İşte genellikle çok meşgulüm. “I’m usually busy at work.”
81	Saatlik “Hourly”	Saatlik çalışmak istiyorum. “I want to work hourly.”
82	Günlük “Daily	Ödevleri günlük yapıyorum. “I’m doing homework daily.”
83	Haftalık “Weekly”	Siparişleri haftalık alıyorum. “I take orders weekly.”
84	Aylık “Monthly”	Raporları aylık hazırlıyorum. “I prepare the reports monthly.”
85	Yıllık “Annually”	Planları yıllık yapıyoruz. “We make the plans annually.”
86	Ayda bir “Once a month”	Toplantıya ayda bir katılıyorum. “I attend the meeting once a month.”

12. Interrogative adverbs

Interrogative adverbs are used to describe what someone wants to know about the action that was performed. Here are some interrogative adverbs in Turkish:

No.	Adverbs in Turkish and English	Their Usage
87	Ne “What”	Benden ne istiyorsun? “What do you want from me?”
88	Ne zaman “When”	Ne zaman gideceksin? “When will you go?”
89	Ne kadar “How much” / “How long”	Daha ne kadar bekleyeceğim? “How long will I wait?”
90	Nasıl “How”	Sen nasıl konuşabilirsin böyle? “How can you talk like this?”
91	Niçin “Why”	Niçin gelmedin? “Why didn’t you come?”

3. Adverbs Based on Their Structures

1. Simple Adverbs (No. 92-93)

These are adverbs that do not take suffixes. They’re root words. Here are two examples:

• Yarın (“Tomorrow”)
• Gece (“Night”)

2. Derived Adverbs (No. 94-96)

These are adverbs that take derivational suffixes.

• Sınıfça (“As a class”)
• Aylarca (“For months”)
• Kışın (“In the winter”)

3. Compound Adverbs (No. 97-99)

A compound adverb is a structure in which one adverb is combined with either another adverb, or sometimes with another part of speech.

• Bugün (Bu + gün) – “Today”
• Biraz (Bir + az) – “Some” / “Little bit”
• Birdenbire (Birden + bire) – “Suddenly”

4. Adverbial Phrases and Reduplicative Adverbs (No. 100-105)

These phrases are formed by combining two or more words, which can be reduplicative words, verb-adverb combinations, and so on.

Here are some examples:

• Hemen hemen (“Almost”)
• Gece gündüz (“Night and day”)
• Er geç (“Sooner or later”)
• Kırk yılda bir (“Once in a blue moon”)
• Üç aşağı beş yukarı (“Approximately” / “More or less”)
• Doğru dürüst (“Properly”)

4. Where Do Adverbs Go in a Sentence?

Turkish adverbs usually come immediately before verbs. However, depending on what you want to emphasize, they might come before adjectives or other adverbs as well. As I mentioned earlier, they never come before nouns, because if they do, they become adjectives.

Here’s the usage of Turkish adverbs with examples:

• Hızlı koşuyor. – “He’s running fast.”

Hızlı (“fast”) is the adverb here, and it comes before the verb.

• Çok hızlı koşuyor. – “He’s running very fast.”

Çok (“very”) is the adverb here, and it comes before the other adverb, hızlı (“fast”).

•  Çok güzel bir evleri var. – “They have a very beautiful house.”

Çok (“very”) is the adverb here, and it comes before the adjective, güzel (“beautiful”).

5. Get More Comfortable with Adverbs via TurkishClass101

Now you know over 100 Turkish adverbs! Can you imagine how rich your sentences will be when you start using them?

How comfortable do you feel using all those adverbs in Turkish now? Do you still have some questions or doubts? Is there an adverb in Turkish we didn’t cover?

Then please visit TurkishClass101, which has many resources you can utilize to improve your skills and expand your knowledge. You can also reach out to us in the comments and we’ll do our best to help!

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Happy Turkish learning!