Consonant Assimilation

01

The "Hard" Consonants: Fıstıkçı Şahap

The change is triggered by a specific set of eight voiceless consonants. If a word ends in one of these, the assimilation rule applies. These consonants are: f, s, t, k, ç, ş, h, p.

A common mnemonic to remember these consonants is the phrase Fıstıkçı Şahap (Pistachio-seller Şahap), as it contains all of them.

02

Suffixes Starting with 'd'

Suffixes that begin with the consonant d will change this to a t when they are attached to a word ending in one of the Fıstıkçı Şahap consonants.

The Locative Suffix: -da/-de → -ta/-te

This suffix means "in", "on", or "at".

• Araba okulda.

  The car is at the school.

• Kitap sokakta.

  The book is on the street.

• Ofiste çok iş var.

  There is a lot of work in the office.

The Ablative Suffix: -dan/-den → -tan/-ten

This suffix means "from".

• Almanya'dan geliyorum.

  I am coming from Germany.

• Otobüsten iniyorum.

  I am getting off the bus.

• Ahmet'ten bir mesaj aldım.

  I got a message from Ahmet.

The Past Tense Suffix: -dı/-di → -tı/-ti

This suffix is used to form the simple past tense.

• Dün bize geldi.

  He/she came to our place yesterday.

• Dün çok iş yaptı.

  He/she did a lot of work yesterday.

• Sabah parkta koştum.

  I ran in the park in the morning.

03

A Related Change: 'c' becomes 'ç'

The same principle applies to suffixes that begin with the consonant c. This consonant changes to ç when following a word ending in one of the Fıstıkçı Şahap consonants.

The Suffix -ca/-ce → -ça/-çe

This suffix can form adverbs or mean "in the ... language".

• Bence bu doğru.

  In my opinion, this is correct.

• Yavaşça konuşuyor.

  He/she is speaking slowly.

• Türkçe öğreniyorum.

  I am learning Turkish.