[Originally posted on 05/14/15 in the forum Duolingo Turkish for English Speakers by Selcen_Ozturk]
The locative case in Turkish is used to describe location in, at, or on a place. It is formed with the suffix -DA. Now, you may be asking, what is that capital D doing there … to which we respond with the answer “consonant harmony.” Turkish employs both vowel and consonant harmony in its grammar.
What does consonant harmony mean exactly? Basically, unvoiced consonants like to be next to unvoiced consonants and voiced consonants like to be next to voiced consonants. For example, think about how we pronounce the plural marker -s in “cats” and “dogs” (one should sound like an ‘s’ and the other should sound like a ‘z’). With the locative (and later the ablative), you will see a similar phenomenon.
The suffix –DA will become –TA after the letters: ç f h k p s ş t
(We use “fıstıkçı şahap” or “Efe Paşa çok hasta” as mnemonics to remember these.) These are unsurprisingly all of the unvoiced consonants in Turkish. The suffix remains as –DA after following any other consonant or a vowel. Remember, this suffix will also employ 2-way vowel harmony.
Here are some examples:
| Turkish Nominative | English | Turkish Locative | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| park | park | parkta | in/at the park |
| otel | hotel | otelde | in/at the hotel |
| banyo | bathroom | banyoda | in the bathroom |
| bakkal | grocery | bakkalda | in/at the store |
| köpek | dog | köpekte | on the dog |
[Updated by Danika_Dakika starting 03/01/22]
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