Lesson 2. Qayerdan?: the ablative -dan; -gacha, and the postpositions keyin and oldin

I can say where I'm from and where I'm coming from, how I travel, from where to where, and what I do before and after work.

Qayerdan? Kimdan? The ablative

The questions qayerdan? (“where from?”) and kimdan? (“from whom?”) are answered by the ablative case. The ending is the same for every word, -dan: Toshkentdan “from Tashkent”, bozordan “from the bazaar”, doʻstimdan “from my friend”. English “from”, “out of”, and “off” are all -dan. You already know this form: Men Amerikadanman — “I'm from America”. Now you can say it about any place: add the personal ending to the -dan word — Samarqanddanman, Toshkentdansiz. For “he” and “she” there is no ending: U Samarqanddan. Pronouns: mendan, sendan, sizdan, undan (with an n), bizdan, sizlardan, ulardan. The pointing words take the same n: bu — bundan (“from this”), shu — shundan (“from this one we're talking about”). The vehicle you ride is a “where”, with the ending -da: avtobusda, taksida, metroda — English “by bus”, “by taxi”, and “by subway”. You get off or out of it with -dan: taksidan tushaman. In conversation you'll also hear ostanovka and otpusk, but the course uses the literary words bekat and taʼtil. Common mistakes: • NOT “dan Toshkent” → Toshkentdan • NOT “Men Samarqanddan” (about yourself) → Men Samarqanddanman • NOT “Avtobusni olaman” (for “I take the bus”) → Avtobusda boraman

Where from? From whom?

The ending -dan is the same for all words.

Question	Form	In English
qayerdan?	Toshkentdan, bozordan, uyimdan, bu yerdan	from Tashkent, from the bazaar, from my house, from here
kimdan?	doʻstimdan, onamdan	from my friend, from my mom
pronouns	mendan, sendan, sizdan, undan, bizdan, sizlardan, ulardan	from me, from you (informal), from you (formal), from him (from her), from us, from you (to several people), from them

What we ride on and where we get off

“On what” is a “where”: the ending -da. What you get off takes “from”: -dan.

Transportation	On what	Get off
avtobus	avtobusda	avtobusdan tushmoq
taksi	taksida	taksidan tushmoq
metro	metroda	—
poyezd	poyezdda	poyezddan tushmoq
samolyot	samolyotda	samolyotdan tushmoq
on foot	piyoda	—

Lesson notes

Qayerdan? Kimdan? The ablative

The questions qayerdan? (“where from?”) and kimdan? (“from whom?”) are answered by the ablative case. The ending is the same for every word, -dan: Toshkentdan “from Tashkent”, bozordan “from the bazaar”, doʻstimdan “from my friend”. English “from”, “out of”, and “off” are all -dan. You already know this form: Men Amerikadanman — “I'm from America”. Now you can say it about any place: add the personal ending to the -dan word — Samarqanddanman, Toshkentdansiz. For “he” and “she” there is no ending: U Samarqanddan. Pronouns: mendan, sendan, sizdan, undan (with an n), bizdan, sizlardan, ulardan. The pointing words take the same n: bu — bundan (“from this”), shu — shundan (“from this one we're talking about”). The vehicle you ride is a “where”, with the ending -da: avtobusda, taksida, metroda — English “by bus”, “by taxi”, and “by subway”. You get off or out of it with -dan: taksidan tushaman. In conversation you'll also hear ostanovka and otpusk, but the course uses the literary words bekat and taʼtil. Common mistakes: • NOT “dan Toshkent” → Toshkentdan • NOT “Men Samarqanddan” (about yourself) → Men Samarqanddanman • NOT “Avtobusni olaman” (for “I take the bus”) → Avtobusda boraman

Until, after, and before: -gacha, keyin, oldin

-gacha means “up to, until”: Samarqandgacha “as far as Samarkand”, soat oltigacha “until six o'clock”. After k and q the first letter changes, as with -ga: eshikkacha, qirqqacha “up to forty”. Together with -dan it makes “from … to …”: Toshkentdan Samarqandgacha, dushanbadan jumagacha. The words keyin (“after”) and oldin (“before”) go AFTER the noun, unlike English “after” and “before”: they are postpositions, not prepositions. These two postpositions need -dan: ishdan keyin “after work”, darsdan oldin “before class”. Common mistakes: • NOT “keyin ish” → ishdan keyin • NOT “ishning keyin” → ishdan keyin • NOT “eshikgacha” → eshikkacha