Seasons: ilkbahar, yaz, sonbahar and kış

The idea

The four seasons are ilkbahar (spring), yaz (summer), sonbahar (autumn) and kış (winter); bahar alone also means spring. To say 'in' a season, ilkbahar and sonbahar take the ordinary locative: ilkbaharda, sonbaharda. Yaz and kış take a fixed -ın instead: yazın, kışın. Seasons are common nouns, so they are written in lowercase and with no apostrophe.

Examples

• Yazın denize gidiyoruz.We go to the sea in summer.For 'in summer' the noun takes -ın, not the locative: yazın. The same fixed ending gives kışın.
• İlkbaharda hava çok güzel.The weather is very nice in spring.Spring and autumn do take the ordinary locative: ilkbahar ends in the voiced r, and the back vowel a gives -da.
• Kışın evde çay içiyoruz.In winter we drink tea at home.One sentence, two endings: the season takes -ın (kışın), the place takes the locative (evde).
• ilkbahardain springilkbahar·da-de / -da / -te / -ta: in, at, on
• sonbahardain autumnsonbahar·da-de / -da / -te / -ta: in, at, on
• Yaz sıcak, kış soğuk.Summer is hot, winter is cold.As a subject the season stays bare and lowercase: yaz, kış. The adjective after it needs no word for 'is'.
• Hangi mevsimi seviyorsun?Which season do you like?
• Bir yılda dört mevsim var.There are four seasons in a year.After a number the noun stays singular (dört mevsim), and yılda is yıl plus the locative.

Watch out

Because the locative means 'in', learners say yazda and kışta. For these two words the usual forms are yazın and kışın. Do not carry that over to the other two seasons: ilkbaharın would mean 'of spring', and 'in spring' is ilkbaharda.

Try it yourself

1. Say 'in summer' with yaz (summer).

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   yazın

   yazın: yaz takes the fixed ending -ın for 'in summer', not the locative; after the vowel a the vowel of the ending is ı.

2. Say 'in winter' with kış (winter).

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   kışın

   kışın: like yaz, kış takes -ın for 'in winter', and kışta is not the usual form.

3. Say 'in autumn' with sonbahar (autumn).

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   sonbaharda

   sonbaharda: autumn takes the ordinary locative; r is voiced, so the ending starts with d, and the back vowel a gives -da.

4. Complete: Summer is hot, winter is cold.

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   sıcak

   sıcak: it is the adjective for 'hot'; Turkish needs no word for 'is' after yaz, so the bare adjective completes the sentence.

Use it today

Write three sentences about what you do or wear in each season. Mark every season word and check whether it needs -ın or the locative.