Grammar in brief: Under the table, behind the door

1At a glance

Ask: whose bottom, whose side? If the owner is named, it takes the genitive, and the place word takes “its” and the case: masanın altında. If it’s me, you or us, the place word takes “my”, “your”: yanımda. If whose doesn’t matter, or is obvious, the case goes straight on: solda.

Owner named masanın altında

When: a thing, a place or a person is named
How it’s built: owner -⁠(n)ın, place word -⁠(s)ı, n, case
Example: kapının arkasında — behind the door
Where to, from: altına — under, altından — out from under
Its quirk: an n before any case: not altıda but altında

Me, you, us yanımda

When: next to me, behind you: the person is a pronoun
How it’s built: place word -⁠(ı)m, -⁠(ı)n…, case: yan-ım-da
Example: arkanda — behind you
Where to, from: yanıma — over to me; anneannemin yanına — to see grandma
Its quirk: benim, senin usually go; yanımda also means “on me”

No owner solda

When: whose doesn’t matter, or is obvious
How it’s built: just the case: sol-da
Example: önde, arkada — at the front, at the back
Where to, from: sağa — to the right, soldan — from the left
Its quirk: arkasında with no owner means “behind it”

whose	arkaback	arkadabehind
benimmy	arkam	arkamda
seninyour	arkan	arkanda
onunhis, her	arkası	arkasında
bizimour	arkamız	arkamızda
sizinyour (pl.)	arkanız	arkanızda
onlarıntheir	arkası	arkasında

2The key points

“Under”, “behind” and “next to” aren’t prepositions in Turkish but ordinary nouns: alt, the bottom; arka, the back; yan, the side. So they come after what they’re about: masanın altında is literally “at the table’s bottom”.
The case always comes last, chosen the usual way: being there, -⁠da; going there, -⁠(y)a; leaving, -⁠dan. Altında, altına, altından: under it, going under it, out from under it. Only the very last ending changes.
The verb has its say too: bakmak looks “to”, altına bakıyorum; çıkmak comes out “from”, kapının arkasından çıkıyor.
Harmony goes by the place word, not the owner: masanın üstünde, evin arkasında. Each ending looks at the vowel right before it.
Usually plain -⁠da is enough: çantada, in the bag. A place word comes in when exactly where matters: çantanın içinde, inside it; çantanın altında, under it.
The compass points and son, “end”, stick on the same way: Ankara’nın doğusunda, east of Ankara; sokağın sonunda, at the end of the street.

3How it works

	where?	where to?	where from?
altunder	altında	altına	altından
üston	üstünde	üstüne	üstünden
içinside	içinde	içine	içinden
arkabehind	arkasında	arkasına	arkasından
arabetween	arasında	arasına	arasından
yannext to	yanında	yanına	yanından

Arkada is just “at the back”. Arkasında is “behind it”, behind something in particular, even with no owner named: it was named already.

Can önde, ben arkada oturuyorum.— Can sits in the front, I sit in the back.

Bu bina bizim. Bahçe arkasında.— This building’s ours. The garden’s behind it.

The owner can be a pair of words too; the place word just goes on the very end:

Çay bahçesinin önünde bir martı var.— There’s a gull in front of the tea garden.

Sağ and sol take an owner too, for “to the right of” and “to the left of”:

Pastane okulun solunda.— The pastry shop’s to the left of the school.

And after a plural, arasında isn’t “between two” any more but “among”:

Anahtar kağıtların arasında!— The key’s in among the papers!

4In real life

— Anahtar nerede? — Kapının arkasında.— Where’s the key? — Behind the door.

— Neredesin? — Pastanenin önündeyim.— Where are you? — Outside the pastry shop.

Telefonum masanın üstünde değil… Ah, gazetenin altında!My phone isn’t on the table… Ah, it’s under the paper!

— Yanında para var mı? — Biraz var.— Have you got any money on you? — A bit.

Kedi yine dolabın üstünde!The cat’s up on the cupboard again!

Kedi masanın altından çıkmıyor.The cat won’t come out from under the table.

Önümde çok kişi var, biraz bekliyorum.There are lots of people ahead of me, so I’m waiting a bit.

Cumartesi babaannemin yanına gidiyoruz.On Saturday we’re going to see my grandma.

Sokağın sonunda bir çay bahçesi var.There’s a tea garden at the end of the street.

5Where it’s easy to slip

Not like this	Like this	Why
masanın altıda	masanın altında	After the “its” ending, an n comes before the case.
altında masanın	masanın altında	The place word comes after its owner.
benim yanda	yanımda	“My” is an ending on yan itself.
masanın üstünda	masanın üstünde	Üst decides the harmony, not masa.
Masanın altında bakıyorum.	Masanın altına bakıyorum.	Bakmak looks “to”: -⁠a.
iki evlerin arasında	iki evin arasında	After a number, the noun stays singular.
dersin önünde	dersten önce	“Before the lesson” is time: -⁠dan önce.

Yanında is both “next to you” (yan-ın-da) and “next to him” (yan-ı-n-da), and you can’t hear the difference. If it matters who, put senin or onun in front.

6Check yourself

Four questions, each with two or three rules at once, and every wrong answer slips on exactly one. Check every ending.

1Your pen has rolled away. How do you say “I’m looking under the chair”?

2You and Can are in the pastry shop, and Ayşe sits down across from you both. Fill in the gap: “Ayşe’s sitting opposite us.”

Ayşe ? oturuyor.

3Hide-and-seek: Efe crawls out from under the table and goes over to his grandma. Which is right throughout?

4Tell a visitor the way: “Our house is at the end of the street, on the right.”