Nouns and noun phrases

A noun is a word that refers to a person, a thing, a place, or a more abstract concept such as happiness. A noun phrase is a group of words that go along with a noun, such as adjectives, determiners, and other modifiers. In Turkish, just as it is the case in English, noun phrases appear in subject and object positions in a sentence. They also appear in the predicate position (e.g., ‘doctor’ in ‘he is a doctor’) and bear tense and person markers, just like verbs, in this position.

1. kadın (a noun) ‘woman’

2. sarışın kadın (noun phrase) ‘blonde woman’

3. şu dükkandaki kırmızı elbiseli sarışın kadın (noun phrase)

4. ‘the blonde woman in the red dress at that shop’

As you see in the examples below, the noun in the noun phrase always appears at the end of the phrase and the others, the modifiers, precede it. A noun or a noun phrase appears in the following positions in a sentence:

As a subject:

1. Yaşlı kadın otobus bekliyordu.

2. Çocuklar parka gittiler.

3. Babam annemi aramış ama annem evde değilmiş.

As a direct object:

1. Annem gazeteyi okuyor.

2. Kim Türk kahvesi içti?