I can say where I'm from and where I'm coming from — Amerika'dan geliyorum, işten çıkıyorum — say a route “from America to Istanbul”, and ask “Where are you from?” — Nereden geliyorsunuz?
Where from? The ablative: -dan
Where from? The ablative: -dan
Why: to say where you're from and where you're coming from right now, and to name a route “from … to …”.
The question Nereden? “where from?” is answered by the ablative: the ending -dan or -den by vowel harmony: kapı → kapıdan “from the door”, defter → defterden “from the notebook”. After a voiceless consonant d becomes t, as in the locative: kitaptan, marketten. A name takes an apostrophe: Moskova'dan, Anna'dan “from Anna”. English “from” before the word becomes this ending after it.
“From me, from you…”: benden, senden, ondan, bizden, sizden, onlardan. “From here” is buradan.
This case goes with gelmek “to come from”, çıkmak “to go out of, to leave”, almak “to take or buy from”: Amerika'dan geliyorum. Evden çıkıyorum. A route keeps the English order, with two endings: Ankara'dan İzmir'e gidiyoruz.
The words uzak and yakın take different cases, as English “far from” and “close to” do: bankadan uzak “far from the bank”, but bankaya yakın “close to the bank”.
Common mistakes:
• NOT “evdan” → evden
• NOT “işden” → işten
• NOT “Rusya geliyorum” → Rusya'dan geliyorum
The ablative: -dan, -den, -tan, -ten
The choice works as for the locative: vowel harmony, and d becomes t after a voiceless consonant.
| The last vowel | After a vowel or a voiced consonant | After a voiceless consonant (p ç t k f h s ş) |
|---|---|---|
| a ı o u | kapıdan · çantadan | kitaptan |
| e i ö ü | kalemden · kediden | marketten |
From me, from you, from here: the ablative of pronouns
The ending is the same as on ordinary words. Below are the place words.
| Who | From whom |
|---|---|
| ben | benden |
| sen | senden |
| o | ondan |
| biz | bizden |
| siz | sizden |
| onlar | onlardan |
| burada | buradan “from here” |
| nerede | nereden “where from” |
Lesson notes
Where from? The ablative: -dan
Why: to say where you're from and where you're coming from right now, and to name a route “from … to …”.
The question Nereden? “where from?” is answered by the ablative: the ending -dan or -den by vowel harmony: kapı → kapıdan “from the door”, defter → defterden “from the notebook”. After a voiceless consonant d becomes t, as in the locative: kitaptan, marketten. A name takes an apostrophe: Moskova'dan, Anna'dan “from Anna”. English “from” before the word becomes this ending after it.
“From me, from you…”: benden, senden, ondan, bizden, sizden, onlardan. “From here” is buradan.
This case goes with gelmek “to come from”, çıkmak “to go out of, to leave”, almak “to take or buy from”: Amerika'dan geliyorum. Evden çıkıyorum. A route keeps the English order, with two endings: Ankara'dan İzmir'e gidiyoruz.
The words uzak and yakın take different cases, as English “far from” and “close to” do: bankadan uzak “far from the bank”, but bankaya yakın “close to the bank”.
Common mistakes:
• NOT “evdan” → evden
• NOT “işden” → işten
• NOT “Rusya geliyorum” → Rusya'dan geliyorum