Furniture and household items: masa, dolap, koltuk

The idea

Furniture names are plain nouns: masa (table), sandalye (chair), koltuk (armchair), kanepe (sofa), yatak (bed), dolap (cupboard, wardrobe), raf (shelf), çekmece (drawer), kitaplık (bookcase), halı (rug), perde (curtain), lamba (lamp). To say where something is, put the furniture first in the genitive, then a place word with its own possessive ending and the locative: masanın üstünde (on the table), altında (under), yanında (next to), önünde (in front of), arkasında (behind), içinde (inside). The place words are üst, alt, yan, ön, arka, iç. Words of more than one syllable that end in k or p soften before a vowel: koltuk → koltuğun, yatak → yatağın, dolap → dolabın; raf stays rafın. This pattern goes beyond A1 grammar: learn each phrase as a block first and the genitive later.

Examples

• Kedi koltuğun altında uyuyor.The cat is sleeping under the armchair.koltuk becomes koltuğun before the ending: the final k softens to ğ.
• Telefonum yastığın yanında.My phone is next to the pillow.There is no verb: in the third person Turkish needs no word for 'is' here. yastık also softens to yastığın.
• Sandalyenin arkasında bir çanta var.There is a bag behind the chair.arka ends in a vowel, so it takes -sı: arkasında. A new thing in the room is introduced with bir ... var.
• Dolabın içinde battaniye var.There is a blanket in the cupboard.dolap becomes dolabın: the final p softens to b. içinde means 'inside it'.
• üstündeon top of itüst·ü-i / -si: his, her, its·nBuffer -n-: evinde, evinden, evine·de-de / -da / -te / -ta: in, at, on
• altındaunder italt·ı-i / -si: his, her, its·nBuffer -n-: evinde, evinden, evine·da-de / -da / -te / -ta: in, at, on
• Yatağın yanında küçük bir sehpa var.There is a small side table next to the bed.
• Kitaplığın üstünde bir fotoğraf var.There is a photo on the bookcase.

Watch out

Learners often drop the genitive and say masa üstünde, or put the locative on the furniture itself: masada üstünde. Say masanın üstünde. Keep the softening too: not dolapın and koltukun, but dolabın and koltuğun.

Try it yourself

1. The lamp is on the table. Write masa (table) with the ending that links it to üstünde.

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   masanın

   masanın: masa ends in a vowel, so the genitive is -nın with the buffer n; the back vowel a gives ı.

2. The bag is under the cupboard. Write dolap (cupboard) with the ending that links it to altında.

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   dolabın

   dolabın: the final p of dolap softens to b before the vowel of the ending, and the back vowel a gives -ın.

3. The cat is next to the sofa. Write kanepe (sofa) with the ending that links it to yanında.

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   kanepenin

   kanepenin: kanepe ends in a vowel, so an n is added; the front vowel e gives -nin.

4. The chair is behind the table. Write arka (back) as a place word meaning 'behind it'.

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   arkasında

   arkasında: arka ends in a vowel, so the possessive is -sı, and the locative follows with n; the back vowel gives -nda.

Use it today

Look around one room and write six sentences with var about where things are, each with a furniture word and a place word. Check the final k and p of every furniture word.