what is it?
Turkish uses two productive suffixes to turn nouns into adjectives: -lI (meaning «with», «having», or «characterized by») and -sIz (meaning «without» or «lacking»). They are direct antonyms: şekerli means «with sugar / sugared» and şekersiz means «without sugar / unsugared». Both suffixes follow four-way vowel harmony, so the vowel in the suffix changes depending on the last vowel of the stem.
when to use it?
Describing a noun as having something. Attach -lI to a noun to create an adjective that modifies another noun or acts as a predicate: sütlü kahve (coffee with milk), evli (married, lit. «having a home/spouse»).
Describing a noun as lacking something. Attach -sIz to express absence: şekersiz çay (tea without sugar), işsiz (unemployed, lit. «without work»).
Referring to people or things associated with a place or quality. -lI can also indicate origin or association: İstanbullu (someone from Istanbul).
Used as predicates. Both adjectives can stand alone as predicates: Amcam işsiz. (My uncle is unemployed.)
formation
Both suffixes follow four-way vowel harmony. The vowel in the suffix is determined by the last vowel of the stem:
| last vowel in stem | -lI form | -sIz form |
|---|---|---|
| a, ı | -lı / -sız | -sız |
| e, i | -li / -siz | -siz |
| o, u | -lu / -suz | -suz |
| ö, ü | -lü / -süz | -süz |
The suffix is added directly to the noun stem. If the stem ends in a vowel, no buffer consonant is needed for -lI or -sIz — the suffix attaches directly: araba → arabalı / arabasız.
Final-consonant devoicing. When a stem ends in a voiced stop (b, c, d, g), that consonant is already the base form, so no change occurs for these suffixes. However, stems whose dictionary form ends in a voiceless stop due to final devoicing (e.g. kitap from underlying kitab-) do not voice before these suffixes — the suffix simply attaches to the dictionary form: kitap → kitaplı (not kitablı).
| stem | meaning of stem | -lI form | -sIz form |
|---|---|---|---|
| şeker | sugar | şekerli | şekersiz |
| tuz | salt | tuzlu | tuzsuz |
| süt | milk | sütlü | sütsüz |
| iş | work / job | işli | işsiz |
| araba | car | arabalı | arabasız |
| dikkat | attention / care | dikkatli | dikkatsiz |
| kitap | book | kitaplı | kitapsız |
examples in context
common pitfalls
Using two-way instead of four-way harmony. A common mistake is to use only -li and -siz for all stems. The suffix vowel must match the last vowel of the stem across all four vowel groups. tuzli and sütsuz are both wrong; the correct forms are tuzlu (u-stem) and sütsüz (ü-stem).
Using değil or yok to express «without». Learners sometimes say şeker değil çay or şeker yok çay to mean «tea without sugar». Neither is natural Turkish. The correct way is the single suffixed adjective: şekersiz çay. Reserve değil for negating predicates and yok for stating that something does not exist.
Confusing -lI / -sIz with the adverbial suffix -CA. Both -lI and -CA attach to nouns, but they do different jobs. -lI / -sIz create descriptive adjectives («with/without something»): dikkatli (careful, having attention). -CA creates adverbs or adjectives of manner/language: Türkçe (Turkish, in the Turkish manner). Do not substitute one for the other.