You will say 'the most' and 'the -est' in Turkish with the small word en, and know which endings go on the noun after it.
The idea
Put en before an adjective or an adverb to say 'the most': en güzel (the most beautiful), en büyük (the biggest), en hızlı (the fastest). En is a separate word and never changes, and the adjective takes no ending. Case and possessive endings go on the noun at the end: en büyük odayı. To name the group, put it in the genitive and give the noun a possessive ending: şehrin en ucuz oteli. With a verb or a noun, use en çok (most) and en az (least): en çok severim.
| Use | Turkish | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| before an adjective | en güzel | the most beautiful |
| before an adverb | en hızlı | the fastest |
| with a verb | en çok severim | I like it most |
| the opposite | en az severim | I like it least |
| naming the group | şehrin en ucuz oteli | the cheapest hotel in the city |
| with a case ending | en büyük odayı | the biggest room (object) |
Examples
- Elif en hızlı koşuyor.Elif runs the fastest.Before an adverb, en also means 'most': hızlı works as 'quickly' without any ending, so en hızlı koşuyor is 'runs the fastest'.
- Ben en çok çay içerim.I drink tea more than anything else.En çok answers 'how much' or 'how often' and is followed by a noun or a verb, not by an adjective. The pronoun ben can be dropped: En çok çay içerim.
- En büyük odayı ben alıyorum.I am taking the biggest room.The case ending goes on the noun, not on en or büyük: oda + -yı = odayı. The adjective stays bare.
- En iyi arkadaşım Mert.My best friend is Mert.
- Bu otel şehrin en ucuz oteli.This hotel is the cheapest hotel in the city.To say 'of the city', put the group in the genitive (şehrin) and give the noun a possessive ending (oteli). En ucuz stays unchanged between them.
- Ailemizin en yaşlı üyesi dedem.My grandfather is the oldest member of our family.
- Hangisi en kolay soru?Which is the easiest question?
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Watch out
Use plain en before an adjective, not en çok: en çok güzel is wrong, the form is en güzel. En çok belongs with verbs and nouns (en çok severim). Also do not stack en and daha: en daha güzel does not exist. Daha compares two things, while en picks the top of a group.
Try it yourself
Fill the gap: This question is the easiest.
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en
en: the word goes before the adjective kolay; kolay itself takes no ending, and there is no daha here.
Write 'my best friend' with arkadaş (friend).
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en iyi arkadaşım
en iyi arkadaşım: en iyi stays as it is, and the ending -ım ('my') goes on arkadaş, the last word of the group.
Fill the two words: I like tea the most.
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en çok
en çok: severim is a verb, so the degree word is en çok ('most'), not en alone.
Add the ending: the tallest student in the class.
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öğrencisi
öğrencisi: the class stands in the genitive (sınıfın), so the noun takes a possessive ending, and öğrenci ends in a vowel, which gives -si.
Practice round
Answer questions, then rebuild Turkish sentences and words where available. We keep your score.
Fill the gap: This question is the easiest.
Write 'my best friend' with arkadaş (friend).
Fill the two words: I like tea the most.
Add the ending: the tallest student in the class.
Tap the words in the right order.
Tap the words in the right order.
Tap the words in the right order.
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Write four sentences with en about the best, biggest, cheapest and fastest thing in your home or town.