Than in Turkish: daha and -den / -dan

The idea

Put daha before the adjective and put the thing you compare with in the ablative, in front of it: Elif senden daha genç. The ablative -den/-dan/-ten/-tan does the work of English 'than'. Daha alone, as in Bu yol daha kısa, means 'more' when the comparison is clear. For 'much more' put çok before it: çok daha küçük.

Examples

• Bu ev o evden daha büyük.This house is bigger than that house.The thing compared with takes the ablative and comes before daha: o evden, 'than that house'.
• Elif senden daha genç.Elif is younger than you.
• Bugün dünden daha soğuk.Today is colder than yesterday.
• Bu yol daha kısa.This road is shorter.With no than-phrase, the comparison is with something clear from the situation, such as another road. The word daha still stands before the adjective.
• Daha yavaş konuşur musunuz?Could you speak more slowly?Daha can also stand before an adverb such as yavaş, 'slowly', not only before an adjective.
• Kayseri İstanbul'dan çok daha küçük.Kayseri is much smaller than Istanbul.A proper name takes an apostrophe before the ablative: İstanbul'dan. Çok before daha means 'much'.
• Kardeşim benden daha çok çalışıyor.My brother or sister works more than I do.Daha çok means 'more' in amount or effort. Çok daha means 'much more': do not swap them.
• Uçak otobüsten daha hızlı.A plane is faster than a bus.Otobüs ends in the voiceless s, so the ablative is -ten: otobüsten.

Watch out

There is no word for 'than': Elif daha genç ben is wrong, because the thing you compare with must take the ablative and stand before daha. Watch the pronouns too: o becomes ondan, not odan, and ben becomes benden.

Try it yourself

1. Fill the gap: Ayşe is faster than me (ben).

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   benden

   benden: the pronoun ben takes the ablative, and since its vowel e is front the ending is -den.

2. Fill the gap: The table is lower than the cupboard (dolap).

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   dolaptan

   dolaptan: p is voiceless, so the ending begins with t, and the back vowel a gives -tan.

3. Fill the gap: This mountain is higher than that one (o).

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   ondan

   ondan: a linking n comes between the pronoun o and the case ending, and the back vowel o gives -dan.

4. Fill the gap: My mother is younger than my father (babam).

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   babamdan

   babamdan: the word ends in the voiced m and its last vowel a is back, so the ending is -dan.

Use it today

Write four sentences comparing yourself with a friend or a family member, each with daha and a word in the ablative.