A1 · Nouns

The plural with -ler and -lar

the plural

Topic 18 of 90 · about 7 minutes

Your goal

You can form the plural with -ler or -lar, and you know that no plural ending follows a number.

Öğrenciler sınıfta.The pupils are in the classroom.

Masada üç bardak var.There are three glasses on the table.

Bu ayakkabılar yeni.These shoes are new.

Done at 8 of 10 · about 4 min

Explainer video

Watch first – then practise

The essentials

RememberOne plural for everything: -ler or -lar — but never after a number.

One ending for all nouns — and none at all after a number.

Signal words: -ler
-lar
iki
üç
çok
birkaç

The form

From the base form to the new form

Each row first says what the form expresses, then shows it in Turkish: the base form before the arrow, the result after it.

house → houses	ev → evler
eye → eyes	göz → gözler
book → books	kitap → kitaplar
school → schools	okul → okullar
clock → clocks	saat → saatler
two books	iki kitap

The rules one by one

The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it

If the last vowel is e, i, ö or ü, the ending is -ler.
Bu evler çok eski.These houses are very old.
After a, ı, o, u the ending is -lar.
Çocuklar bahçede.The children are in the garden.
After a number the noun stays singular.
İki elma aldım.I bought two apples.

More rules (2)

No plural after çok and birkaç either.
Parkta çok insan var.There are a lot of people in the park.
Some loanwords with a light sound at the end take -ler.
Bu saatler pahalı.These watches are expensive.

Example sentences

5 more example sentences

Birkaç gün İzmir'deyim.I am in İzmir for a few days.

Bütün mağazalar kapalı.All the shops are closed.

Kediler süt içiyor.The cats are drinking milk.

Dört bilet istiyorum.I would like four tickets.

Sokaklar çok kalabalık.The streets are very crowded.

The trap English speakers fall into

Watch out

English speakers add the plural after a number because English does: “two books”. In Turkish that is saying it twice, and wrong — nobody says iki kitaplar. The number is enough.

Wrong:İki kitaplar aldım.

Right:İki kitap aldım.

Lesson

The full explanation

Read it all · about 1 min

English has one regular plural and a handful of irregular ones: books, boxes, children, mice, sheep. Turkish has just one pattern: -ler or -lar. Which of the two you use is decided by the last vowel of the word — two-way vowel harmony. After e, i, ö, ü comes -ler: ev → evler, göz → gözler. After a, ı, o, u comes -lar: kitap → kitaplar, okul → okullar.

After a number the noun stays singular. iki elmameans “two apples”üç kitap“three books” The number already says there are several; a second plural would be saying it twice. The same goes after çok (“many”) and birkaç (“a few”): çok insan, birkaç gün.

The ending begins with a consonant, so it never changes the stem: no softening, no buffer consonant. kitap stays as it is in kitaplar. And where a kind of thing is meant rather than a number of pieces, Turkish often stays in the singular: Elma aldım. “I bought (some) apples.”

A closer look

Why it is saatler

The rule looks at the last vowel, and in saat that is an a — yet the plural is saatler. Some loanwords, mostly from Arabic or French, end in a light sound that the spelling does not show: saat, rol, gol, kalp. They take the front endings: saatler, roller, goller.

There are not many, and you learn the commonest ones with the word. In the word lists they carry a note.

Maçta iki gol oldu, goller çok güzeldi.There were two goals in the match, and the goals were great.

Worth knowing2

Worth knowing
One pattern, no irregulars
Children, mice, feet, sheep — English has plurals you simply have to learn. Turkish always adds the same ending and leaves the stem as it is.
Kitaplar çantada.The books are in the bag.
Worth knowing
Quantity words take the singular
Not only after numbers: after çok (much, many), az (little, few), birkaç (a few) and her (every) the noun is singular too. her gün is “every day” — as in English — but çok araba is “many cars”.
Her gün çok araba geçiyor.Lots of cars go past every day.