what is it?
The Turkish passive voice removes the agent (the doer) from the grammatical subject position and promotes the patient (the thing acted upon) to subject instead. It is formed by attaching a passive suffix — -Il, -In, or -n — directly to the verb stem, before any tense or person endings. The agent may be expressed optionally with tarafından («by»). Turkish also allows an impersonal passive on intransitive verbs, producing a construction with no subject at all — used frequently for public notices and prohibitions.
when to use it
Agent is unknown or unimportant. When you do not know who performed the action, or it does not matter: Mektup dün yazıldı — the letter was written; who wrote it is irrelevant.
Focus on the patient. When the object of an active sentence is more important than its subject: Bu ev 1950'de yapıldı — the house is the topic, not the builder.
Named agent with tarafından. When the agent is named, attach tarafından to the agent noun: polis tarafından yakalandı («was caught by the police»).
Impersonal passive on intransitives. Intransitive verbs (those that cannot take a direct object) can still be passivised to produce a subjectless, impersonal statement. This is common in signs and rules: Burada sigara içilmez («Smoking is not done here»).
formation
The passive suffix has three allomorphs determined by the final sound of the verb stem. Vowel harmony then applies to the suffix vowel in the normal way.
-Il — used after stems ending in a consonant other than l. The vowel harmonises: -ıl / -il / -ul / -ül.
-In — used after stems ending in l (to avoid a double-l cluster). The vowel harmonises: -ın / -in / -un / -ün.
-n — used after stems ending in a vowel. No extra vowel is inserted.
The passive suffix slots in immediately after the stem, before tense suffixes such as -dI (simple past), -Iyor (present continuous), or -mAz (negative aorist).
| stem | last sound | passive stem | meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| yap- | consonant (p) | yapıl- | be made/built |
| gör- | consonant (r) | görül- | be seen |
| yaz- | consonant (z) | yazıl- | be written |
| yakala- | vowel (a) | yakalan- | be caught |
| ara- | vowel (a) | aran- | be searched/called |
| bil- | l | bilin- | be known |
| al- | l | alın- | be taken/bought |
Full conjugation example — yazıl- (simple past): yazıldı («it was written»), yazıldım («I was written [to]»), yazıldın, yazıldı, yazıldık, yazıldınız, yazıldılar. The passive stem behaves like any other verb stem from this point on.
examples in context
common pitfalls
Wrong allomorph. Learners often apply -Il to every stem. Remember: after l-final stems use -In (bil- → bilin-, not *bilil-); after vowel-final stems use bare -n (ara- → aran-, not *araıl-). Only consonant-final stems (excluding l) take -Il.
Using -DAn for the agent instead of tarafından. The ablative suffix -dan/-den marks source or cause, not agent. Saying *polisten yakalandı is ungrammatical for «caught by the police». Always use tarafından when naming the agent of a passive verb.
Passive/reflexive homophone confusion. Some passive forms are identical to reflexive forms. Yıkan- can mean either «be washed» (passive of yıka-) or «wash oneself / bathe» (reflexive). Context — especially the presence or absence of a patient noun — is the only reliable guide. When writing, make the context explicit to avoid ambiguity.