Lesson 4. Where the ending meets the word: -лар / -дар / -тар

The first letter of the ending depends on the last sound of the word. The plural ending starts with one of three consonants — л, д, т — and each comes in a hard and a soft form: six forms in all. English has nothing like it. • After a vowel and after р, й, у — -лар / -лер: тау (mountain) → таулар, үй (house) → үйлер. • After л, м, н, ң, з, ж — -дар / -дер: қыз (girl) → қыздар, көл (lake) → көлдер. • After a voiceless consonant (п, т, к, қ, с, ш, х, ф: said without voice) and after б, в, г, д — -тар / -тер: дос (friend) → достар, мектеп (school) → мектептер. Choose in two steps: the consonant by the last sound of the word; the vowel (а or е) by the last syllable, as in lesson 3. The word itself doesn't change. Common mistakes: • NOT “дослар” — after the voiceless с the ending starts with т. • NOT “қызлар” — after з the ending starts with д.

“After a voiceless sound, a voiceless one” is the general rule of Kazakh endings: if the word ends in a voiceless consonant, the consonant at the start of the ending is voiceless too. After б, в, г, д it works the same way, although an English ear hears them as voiced. Other endings have their own pairs of consonants; we'll show them when they come up. The principle stays the same. What the checker sees: -лар, -дар, and -тар are three different answers, just like -лар and -лер. But a Kazakh letter inside the word (қ, ә, і) can be typed as the plain Cyrillic letter: the answer counts, and the answer key shows the right spelling. Common mistakes: • NOT “always -лар”: after м, н, з and after voiceless consonants the ending starts with another letter.