In, from and to

7.1 -DA (-de): in, at, on

-DA says where something is. English chooses among in, at and on, depending on the place; Turkish has the one ending for all three.

As chapter 3 had it, D is t after a hard consonant, and the word before it doesn't soften, since the ending starts with a consonant: mutfakta keeps its k.

The personal endings of chapter 5 go after it, for "I am at", "we are in":

And with var and yok, the place with -DA comes first:

On a person's name, -DA is "at someone's": Ayşe'de is "at Ayşe's", at her home.

-DA also says when, with clock times: saat üçte, "at three o'clock".

7.2 -DAn (-den): from, out of

-DAn says where something comes from, or where a movement starts: English from, and sometimes out of. It is -DA with an n after it, and changes in the same way: evden, okuldan, otobüsten, kitaptan.

-DAn also says "than". The thing compared with takes -DAn, and daha, "more", from chapter 6, can be said or left out:

Word for word, the second is "Istanbul is more big from Ankara".

With verbs of moving, -DAn can also be the way something goes: kapıdan, "through the door"; köprüden, "over the bridge". The verbs come later; the ending is the same.

7.3 -(y)A (-e): to, towards

-(y)A says where something is going: "to", "towards", "into". It takes y after a vowel: eve, okula, but arabaya, Ankara'ya. And it starts with a vowel, so a word's last consonant softens before it, as in chapter 3: kitap, kitaba; sokak, "street", sokağa.

Most sentences with -(y)A have a verb of going or giving in them. These need none:

Taksim is a square in the middle of Istanbul. Nereye? is what a taxi driver asks, and the place with -(y)A is the answer.

A verb on its own, its bare stem, tells someone to do something: gel, "come"; sor, "ask".

Some verbs take -(y)A where English has no "to" at all. Turkish asks "to" a person:

So a verb is best learned with the ending it wants: sor, "ask", with -(y)A for the person asked. English also leaves "to" out of some phrases of going where Turkish keeps -(y)A: "go home" is "go to home", with eve.

The three endings side by side:

7.4 bende, bana: the persons with these endings

The words for the persons, and bu, şu and o, take the same endings, with two surprises:

The surprises are bana and sana, "to me" and "to you", where ben and sen change their vowel. o, bu and şu take the n of chapter 3: onda, buna.

In the glosses a pronoun keeps its plain English whatever form it takes, and the ending is glossed as on any word: ben-de is I-at, and ban-a is I-to.

With a person, -DA often means "with" or "on" that person: having something on you, or in your keeping.

bak, "look", is another verb that takes -(y)A. Turkish looks "to" something:

7.5 Verbs and the endings they want

bak and sor are two of many verbs that take one of these three endings where English has a different preposition, or none at all. Getting on a bus is going "to" it; getting off is coming "from" it; arriving is "to" a place, not "at" it.

Learn each verb with its ending, as a dictionary gives it. The bare stem is enough to tell someone what to do:

The second says where the getting off happens, so it takes -DA. What you get off, the bus, would take -DAn.

7.6 Here, there and where: burada, orada, nerede

Turkish makes "here", "there" and "where" from four short words that don't stand on their own, only with an ending: bura, "this place"; şura, "that place", the one you point at; ora, "that place", further off; and nere, "what place". They are built on bu, şu, o and ne, and the three endings go on them as on any word:

English says "here" both for where something is and where it goes; Turkish keeps the two apart. Ali burada is "Ali is here", but "come here" is Buraya gel, with -(y)A, since the coming goes towards here.

A short answer is the one word that answers, with the same ending the question had: nerede asks for -DA, nereden for -DAn, nereye for -(y)A.

7.7 Names and the apostrophe: İstanbul'da

The name of a person or a place takes its endings after an apostrophe: İstanbul'da, Ankara'dan, İzmir'e, Ali'ye, Türkiye'de. The apostrophe is there only in writing; the word is said whole.

Everything else is as for any word. The ending follows the name's last vowel, D is t after a hard consonant, and y comes between two vowels:

A name never softens in writing: Mehmet'e, Zeynep'e, though kitap becomes kitaba. Foreign names take the endings that fit the way Turks say them: Londra'da, "in London"; Paris'te; Berlin'e.

Words that aren't names take no apostrophe, even beside a name: Ankara'da bir otelde, "in a hotel in Ankara".