Plural Suffix in Turkish: -ler and -lar

I guess one of the simplest rules in Turkish grammar is to make a noun plural. But still we need some information about the Major Vowel Harmony.

What is Major Vowel Harmony?

There is two group of vowels in Turkish. One is formed by hard (or bass) vowels, and the other is soft (or treble) vowels. If the last vowel of the word is hard, the next vowel must be hard as well. If it is soft, the other must be soft too. Here is the vowel table:

Plural Suffixes

There are two shapes of the plural suffixes in Turkish. One is -lar, for hard vowels, and the other is -ler for soft vowels. As a result of the major vowel harmony, if the last vowel of the noun is a hard vowel, then we add -lar. If not, we add -ler. Let's see the examples;

ev (house) : ev+ler : evler
The last vowel is e. "e" is a soft vowel, so we add -ler

araba (car) : araba+lar : arabalar
The last vowel is a. "a" is a hard vowel, so we add -lar

kuş (bird) : kuş+lar : kuşlar
bina (building) : bina+lar : binalar
kedi (cat) : kedi+ler : kediler
tavuk (chicken) : tavuk+lar : tavuklar
kalem (pen) : kalem+ler : kalemler
elma (apple) : elma+lar : elmalar
muz (banana) : muz+lar : muzlar

Now it is time to find more nouns to make them plural. Kolay gelsin!

Photo: Ed Visoso