Conjunctions (Bağlaçlar)

Conjunctions (bağlaçlar) connect words, phrases and clauses. Turkish also expresses many "because / when / although" relations with verb suffixes, but the conjunctions below are essential in everyday speech.

Joining: ve, ile, de/da

• ve (and): joins any equal elements: nouns, adjectives, verbs or whole clauses.
  elma ve armut (apple and pear), Geldi ve oturdu. (He/She came and sat down.)
• ile (and / with): joins nouns only, often attached as -(y)la/-(y)le.
  annemle babam (my mother and my father)
• de/da (also, too, and): written as a separate word; it follows e/a harmony with the last vowel but never becomes te/ta.
  Ben de geldim. (I came too.), Kitap da güzel. (The book is nice too.), Ahmet de çok yorgun. (Ahmet is very tired too.)

Contrast and Alternatives

• ama / fakat / ancak / lakin (but, however): ama is the everyday word, fakat is slightly more formal, ancak is formal/written, and lakin is old-fashioned.
  Çalıştım ama başaramadım. (I studied, but I didn't succeed.)
• veya / ya da / yahut (or):
  Çay veya kahve ister misin? (Would you like tea or coffee?)

Paired Conjunctions

• hem ... hem (de) (both ... and):
  Hem çalışıyor hem (de) okuyor. (She both works and studies.)
• ya ... ya (da) (either ... or):
  Ya bugün ya (da) yarın gelirim. (I'll come either today or tomorrow.)
• ne ... ne (de) (neither ... nor): in standard Turkish the verb stays positive, because ne ... ne already makes it negative.
  Ne çay ne kahve içerim. (I drink neither tea nor coffee.), Ne geldi ne de aradı. (He/She neither came nor called.)

Cause, Result and Explanation

• çünkü (because): the reason comes second.
  Gelemedim çünkü hastaydım. (I couldn't come because I was sick.)
• bu yüzden / bu nedenle / o yüzden (so, therefore): the result comes second.
  Hastaydım, bu yüzden gelemedim. (I was sick, so I couldn't come.)
• yani (that is, I mean, so):
  Vakit yok, yani acele etmeliyiz. (There's no time, so we must hurry.)

Subordinating Words: ki, eğer, madem

• ki (that): written separately and never changes for vowel harmony. It introduces a clause after the main verb or after öyle / o kadar ("so ... that").
  Biliyorum ki haklısın. (I know that you are right.), O kadar yorgunum ki hemen uyuyacağım. (I'm so tired that I'll fall asleep right away.)
  It is written together only in fixed words: belki, çünkü, sanki, mademki, halbuki.
• eğer / şayet (if): optional; the verb still needs -sA.
  Eğer istersen gelebilirim. (If you want, I can come.)
• madem / mademki (since, seeing that):
  Mademki geldin, içeri gir. (Since you've come, come inside.)

Common Mistakes

• ✗ Bende geldim. → ✓ Ben de geldim. (bende with the suffix means "on me / at my place")
• ✗ Kitap ta → ✓ Kitap da (the conjunction de/da never becomes te/ta)
• ✗ Geldi ile oturdu. → ✓ Geldi ve oturdu. (ile can't join verbs)
• ✗ Biliyorumki → ✓ Biliyorum ki
• Avoid Ne çay ne kahve içmem in careful Turkish → ✓ Ne çay ne kahve içerim.