Looking for a special way to call your valentine this year? Turkish has a rich variety of expressions for different shades of affection.
For partners, you’ll hear “sevgilim” (my darling) or “aşkım” (my love). Words like “canım” (my dear, my life/heart/soul) or “kuzum” (my lamb) extend to friends and children, and couples often use playful words like “bebişim” (my baby) or “aşkitom” (my love).
The Grammar of Love: How Turkish Endearments Work
If you’ve ever heard Turkish couples calling each other “aşkım” (my love), “bebeğim” (my baby), or “hayatım” (my life), you might have noticed a pattern—most of these words end in “-m”. That’s because they use the first-person possessive suffix, which means “my” in Turkish!
To create an endearment term in Turkish, take a noun and add the first-person possessive suffix. Attention: the suffix changes based on whether the word ends in a vowel or a consonant and on vowel harmony.
If the word ends in a vowel, simply add ”-m” to mean “my”:
Yavru → Yavrum (Baby → My baby)
Tatlı → Tatlım (Sweet → My sweet one)
Kuzu → Kuzum (Lamb → My lamb)
Sevgili → Sevgilim (Lover/darling → My darling)
Bir tane → Bir tanem (One and only → My one and only)
If the word ends in a consonant, you should add ”-ım, -im, -um, or -üm” depending on vowel harmony.
1. Vowel harmony (Ünlü uyumu):
If the last vowel of a word is a or ı, the suffix is -ım → Canım (My soul/heart/life)
If the last vowel is e or i, the suffix is -im → Güzelim (My beautiful one)
If the last vowel is o or u, the suffix is -um → Ruhum (My soul)
If the last vowel is ö or ü, the suffix is -üm → Gülüm (My rose)
Other examples include but are of course not limited to:
Aşk (Love) → Aşkım (My love)
Hayat (Life) → Hayatım (My life)
Kuş (Bird) → Kuşum (My bird)
Sultan (Sultan) → Sultanım (My sultan) (Only for women)
2. Consonant Softening (Ünsüz Yumuşaması)
According to Ünsüz Yumuşaması, if the word ends in p, ç, t, or k these voiceless consonants change to voiced b, c, d, or g/ğ, when adding a suffix starting with a vowel.
Bebek (Baby) → Bebeğim (My baby) (Common)
Çiçek (Flower) → Çiçeğim (My flower) (Pretty common)
Melek (Angel) → Meleğim (My langel) (Pretty common)
Böcek (Bug) → Böceğim (My bug) (Not common)
Exclusive for married couples:
Koca (Husband) → Kocacık (Beloved/dear husband) → Kocacığım (My dear/beloved husband)
Karı (Wife) → Karıcık (Beloved/dear wife) → Karıcığım (My dear/beloved wife)
Evimin direği (The pillar of my home–exclusive for the main breadwinner man of the household.)
But of course, there are exceptions and in some words, the voiceless consonants don’t change:
Aşk (Love) → Aşkım (My love)
Hayat (Life) → Hayatım (My life)
Get more poetic and metaphorical
For a deeper and more poetic touch, many metaphorical phrases are commonly used by Turkish people. Beautiful poetry combined with lovely linguistics: notice the possessive endings, this time using first- and third-person possessive suffixes, consonant softening, and of course vowel harmony here:
Canımın içi (The inners of my soul/heart)
Hayatımın anlamı (The meaning of my life)
Gözümün bebeği (The pupil of my eye)
Gözümün nuru (The divine light of my eye)
Başımın tacı (The crown of my head)
Your turn
As a general rule, Turkish endearment terms are made using this recipe: take something cute, beautiful, sweet, or meaningful and use the first-person possessive suffix, apply the rule of vowel harmony and consonant softening, and ask your sevgili if they like it and go ahead!
For example, fıstığım (my pistaccio), kelebeğim (my butterfly), dünyam (my world), baklavam (my baklava).
Çünkü neden olmasın?
This blog was written for you with love by our Turkish teachers Filiz and Yüsra. And to accompany you as you master vowel harmony, turn on this Turkish Love Playlist.
Image from The Girl with the Red Scarf (Selvi Boylum Al Yazmalım)(1977), directed by Atıf Yılmaz.
