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Cases: The Six-Case System

Nominative, accusative, dative, locative, ablative, genitive cases and their uses
Case in nominalized clauses
cases on verbal nouns and participles
varies
Gelmesi (his coming nom) / gelmesini (acc) / gelmesine (dat) / gelmesinden (abl)
Genitive + possessive agreement in izafet
full agreement in possessive constructions
varies
Öğrencinin kitabı: genitive on head + possessive suffix on possessed noun
Case with verbs: which verbs take which cases
verb government/valency
varies
Bakmak takes dative: ona baktım (I looked at him); gülmek takes dative: güldü
Postpositional phrases vs. case suffixes
when to use postpositions vs. bare case
varies
Eve doğru (toward home) vs. eve (to home); postposition adds more specificity
Ablative of comparison: daha...dan
comparative structure with ablative
varies
Senden daha akıllıyım = I am smarter than you; ablative marks the standard
Locative of time: -da/-de for time points
at/on + time expression
varies
Pazartesi'de (on Monday); saat üçte (at three o'clock); yazın (in summer)
Dative for recipient: verbs of giving/saying
indirect object in dative
varies
Sana söyledim = I told you; bana verdi = he gave it to me; dative = recipient
Ablative for cause/reason: -den dolayı/-den ötürü
because of / owing to
varies
Yorgunluktan uyudum = I slept from tiredness; ablative of cause
Genitive for partitive meaning
genitive expressing part of a whole
varies
Sütün yarısı = half of the milk; onların biri = one of them
Case in relative clause heads
the head noun carries the case of the matrix clause
varies
Okuduğum kitabı sana verdim = I gave you the book I read (acc on head)