-li/-lı

With and Made of (-li)

Level 3

The suffix -li (and its variants -lı, -lu, -lü) turns a noun into an adjective. It describes a person or thing that has a certain quality, contains a specific ingredient, or comes from a particular place.

How It Works

The -li suffix is one of the most versatile tools in Turkish. It functions in four main ways:

  • Possession/Characteristic: It describes someone or something having a specific feature. For example, akıl (mind/intelligence) becomes akıllı (intelligent/with mind).
  • Ingredients: It is used to describe food or drinks containing something. Sütlü kahve is 'coffee with milk'. Note that this creates a category of item, rather than just a temporary accompaniment.
  • Origin: When attached to a city or country, it indicates where a person is from (e.g., İstanbullu). Note that while this indicates geographic origin, many nationalities have specific names (like Türk or Fransız) that are preferred over the -li form.
  • Phrasal Adjectives: It is used in descriptions combining an adjective and a noun, such as mavi gözlü (blue-eyed) or kısa boylu (short-statured).

Morphology:
Because the suffix starts with a consonant (l), you never need a buffer consonant, even if the noun ends in a vowel (e.g., araba + -lı = arabalı).

Vowel Harmony Rules:
This suffix follows Four-Way Vowel Harmony:

  • -lı after a, ı (e.g., akıllı).
  • -li after e, i (e.g., şekerli).
  • -lu after o, u (e.g., tuzlu).
  • -lü after ö, ü (e.g., sütlü).

Examples (5)

  1. Lütfen bana bir sütlü kahve getirir misin?

    Could you please bring me a coffee with milk?

    Word by Word: Please to-me one with-milk coffee bring [question]?

    Here, -lü is used because the last vowel of 'süt' (milk) is 'ü'.

  2. Mavi gözlü kız çok zeki.

    The blue-eyed girl is very intelligent.

    Word by Word: Blue with-eye girl very intelligent.

    This shows a compound adjective where -lü describes a physical characteristic.

  3. Ankaralı arkadaşlarım yarın bize gelecek.

    My friends from Ankara are coming to us tomorrow.

    Word by Word: From-Ankara friends-my tomorrow to-us will-come.

    Attaching -lı to a city name indicates origin or residency.

  4. Bugün hava çok bulutlu.

    The weather is very cloudy today.

    Word by Word: Today weather very with-cloud.

    Bulut (cloud) becomes bulutlu (cloudy) to describe the state of the weather.

  5. Şekerli çay sevmiyorum.

    I don't like tea with sugar.

    Word by Word: With-sugar tea I-do-not-like.

    Şekerli describes the tea as a specific type (sugary tea).

Common Mistakes

  • Using -li for raw materials (made of).

    Tahtalı masa
    Tahta masa

    For the main material an object is made of, the usual choice is the plain noun as an adjective (tahta masa, demir kapı) or the ablative case. The suffix -li usually means 'with' or 'having', as in sütlü kahve.

  • Confusing -li with -lik.

    Çay şekerlikli.
    Çay şekerli.

    The suffix -lik refers to a container or purpose (şekerlik = sugar bowl), while -li refers to containment/ingredients.

  • Ignoring four-way vowel harmony.

    Tuzli yemek
    Tuzlu yemek

    You must follow four-way vowel harmony. Since 'tuz' has a 'u', the suffix must be '-lu'.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

-li/-lıLevel 3With and Made of (-li)

Learn This First

To use the -li/-lı suffix, you must understand four-way vowel harmony to choose the correct vowel form. Additionally, since this suffix creates adjectives from nouns, you should be familiar with how adjectives are placed before nouns in Turkish. Finally, understanding how to handle proper nouns is necessary for using the suffix to describe where someone is from.

Words in This Pattern

-li