what is it?
Turkish expresses "before" and "after" with the postpositions önce and sonra. When a noun or pronoun precedes them, it must carry the ablative suffix -DAn (realised as -dan, -den, -tan, or -ten depending on vowel harmony and final consonant). A bare time-span noun — a number plus a unit such as beş dakika — takes no suffix and means "ago" (with önce) or "later" (with sonra).
when to use it?
Noun + -DAn önce/sonra — to say something happens before or after a named event or time: yemekten sonra (after the meal), dersten önce (before class).
Pronoun + -DAn önce/sonra — to say before or after a person: benden önce (before me). The pronoun takes the same ablative suffix.
Time span + önce/sonra (no suffix) — a quantity of time placed directly before önce or sonra means "ago" or "later": beş dakika önce (five minutes ago), bir saat sonra (one hour later). No -DAn is added here.
formation
The ablative suffix follows standard vowel harmony and consonant rules. The table below shows the pattern for common nouns and pronouns used with this construction.
| base form | ablative form | with önce | with sonra |
|---|---|---|---|
| yemek (meal) | yemekten | yemekten önce | yemekten sonra |
| ders (class/lesson) | dersten | dersten önce | dersten sonra |
| akşam (evening) | akşamdan | akşamdan önce | akşamdan sonra |
| sabah (morning) | sabahtan | sabahtan önce | sabahtan sonra |
| ben (I/me) | benden | benden önce | benden sonra |
| o (he/she/it) | ondan | ondan önce | ondan sonra |
Time spans take no suffix. Write beş dakika önce, not *beş dakikadan önce.
examples in context
common pitfalls
Omitting -DAn on the noun. Writing *yemek sonra is incorrect. The noun must carry the ablative: yemekten sonra. Without -DAn, the postposition has no noun to attach to.
Confusing this with the verbal forms. At A2 you will meet -mAdAn önce and -DIktAn sonra, which attach to verb stems to mean "before doing" and "after doing". Those are different constructions. The pattern on this page applies only to nouns and pronouns.
Forgetting -DAn on a pronoun. *Ben sonra geldi is wrong. Pronouns follow the same rule as nouns: benden sonra geldi (he came after me).
Adding -DAn to a time span. When önce/sonra means "ago/later", the time span is bare. *Beş dakikadan önce is not standard Turkish. The correct form is simply beş dakika önce.
Three sentences, graded here. Nothing is saved and no account is needed.
___ önce ellerini yıkadı. (yemek)
Fill in the blank with the correct form of the word in parentheses.