Correlative conjunctions in Turkish (A2)

what is it?

Correlative conjunctions are fixed pairs of words that work together to link two nouns, noun phrases, or clauses. Turkish has four main pairs: hem … hem (de) «both … and», ne … ne (de) «neither … nor», ya … ya (da) «either … or», and ister … ister «whether … or». Both halves of each pair are obligatory — you cannot use just one half and leave the other out.

when to use it

hem … hem (de) — use when both items apply at the same time. Equivalent to English «both … and».
ne … ne (de) — use to exclude both items. Equivalent to English «neither … nor». The verb that follows stays in the positive form because the correlative pair already carries the negative meaning.
ya … ya (da) — use when exactly one of two alternatives is true or chosen. Equivalent to English «either … or».
ister … ister — use to say that the outcome is the same regardless of which alternative is chosen. Equivalent to English «whether … or / it doesn't matter if … or».

formation

Each pair follows the same slot pattern: the first word of the pair goes directly before the first element, and the second word goes directly before the second element. The optional particle de / da (following vowel harmony) is commonly added to the second half of hem … hem and ya … ya but is never required.

pair	pattern	meaning
hem … hem (de)	hem [A] hem (de) [B]	both A and B
ne … ne (de)	ne [A] ne (de) [B]	neither A nor B
ya … ya (da)	ya [A] ya (da) [B]	either A or B
ister … ister	ister [A] ister [B]	whether A or B

When the two elements joined by hem … hem de are the subject of the sentence, the verb agrees with a plural subject. Example: Hem ben hem de kardeşim geldik. — the verb geldik is first-person plural because the combined subject includes the speaker.

examples in context

Hem Türkçe hem İngilizce konuşuyor.

She speaks both Turkish and English.

Both items are noun phrases placed directly after each hem. No de is added here, which is perfectly natural.

Hem ben hem de kardeşim geldik.

Both I and my brother came.

The second half takes de, which is the more common spoken form. The verb is first-person plural.

Ne çay ne kahve içerim.

I drink neither tea nor coffee.

The verb içerim is positive. The negation is supplied by ne … ne itself.

Ne param ne de zamanım var.

I have neither money nor time.

The predicate var «there is / I have» stays positive. Using yok here would be a double negative and is non-standard.

Ya bugün ya yarın gelirim.

I will come either today or tomorrow.

The two alternatives are adverbs of time. Either one is possible, not both.

İster sen gel ister o.

Let either you come or him — it doesn't matter which.

ister … ister signals that the result is the same regardless of which option is chosen.

common pitfalls

Negating the verb after ne … ne. A common mistake is to write Ne çay ne kahve içmem with a negative verb. This creates a double negative. The correlative pair ne … ne already carries the negative meaning, so the verb must stay positive: Ne çay ne kahve içerim.
✗ Ne çay ne kahve içmem. ✓ Ne çay ne kahve içerim.
Using only one half of the pair. Writing Hem Türkçe konuşuyor with a single hem leaves the sentence incomplete. Turkish requires both halves: Hem Türkçe hem İngilizce konuşuyor.
✗ Hem Türkçe konuşuyor. ✓ Hem Türkçe hem İngilizce konuşuyor.
Forgetting de/da on the second half. Omitting de / da is grammatically acceptable, but in natural speech the second conjunct of hem … hem and ya … ya very commonly takes de / da. Learning the forms hem … hem de and ya … ya da as the default will make your Turkish sound more natural.