Emphatic adjectives in Turkish

Emphatic adjectives (pekiştirme sıfatları) are intensive variants of our good old adjectives, which you can use to add flair to your speech while making it more attention-grabbing. Let's look at a few examples to get the basic idea (click on any highlighted word to watch a video example)!

• karanlık (dark) - kapkaranlık (pitch black, stygian)

• güzel (beautiful) - güpgüzel (as pretty as a picture)

• mavi (blue) - masmavi (deep blue, azure)

• yeşil (green) - yemyeşil (very green, lush)

• temiz (clean) - tertemiz (spotless, very clean)

Pretty cool, right? Thankfully, you don't have to memorize these adjectives to use them! As with (almost) everything, Turkish has rules for this, too. Without further ado, let's learn how to intensify an adjective. Some basics

Before getting into the nitty gritty, there are some basics you have to know.

• Adjectives are intensified using prefixes (in fact, this is the only instance of prefixation in Turkish).

• These prefixes consist of [the part of the adjective up to the first vowel] + [p/s/m/r].

• Emphatic adjectives are stressed on the first syllable.

• The prefix and base of the emphatic adjective cannot be seperated and are always written as one word.

In the examples above, you can already see the p/s/m/r discrepancy between the different intensive adjectives. This begs the question "Which of the four letters should I use and when?".

The P/S/M/R situationship

Which consonant you use when intensifying is determined by a simple algorithm.

1. The default intensifying consonant is p.

   1. All adjectives which begin with a vowel are intensified using p.

      
      

      • açık (clear) - apaçık (very clear, obvious)

      • eski (old) - epeski (very old, ancient)

      • ince (thin) - ipince (hair thin)

        
        

2. If the base adjective starts with a labial consonant (b/m/p), s or m is used instead.

   1. If said adjective does not contain a sibilant (s/ş/z), s is used.

      
      

      • belli (apparent) - besbelli (very apparent, obvious)

      • büyük (big) - büsbüyük (giant, gargantuan)

      • mor (purple) - mosmor (deep purple)

        
        

   2. If said adjective does contain a sibilant, m is used.

      
      

      • beyaz (white) - bembeyaz (snow white)

      • başka (different) - bambaşka (completely different, unique)

      • boş (empty) - bomboş (devoid of anything)

        
        

3. If the base adjective starts with a palatal (k/g/y) or alveolar consonant (c/ç/d/j/l/n/r/s/ş/t/z), (1) still applies, but sometimes (2a) or (2b) can be applied as alternative forms.

   
   

   • katı (hard, dense) - kapkatı/kaskatı (hard as a rock)

   • kötü (bad) - köpkötü/köskötü (terrible)

   • siyah (black) - sipsiyah/simsiyah (pitch black)

     
     

4. The usage of r cannot be linked to a certain rule, but it seems to have two distinct fields of use.

   1. It is used when intensifying some adjectives loaned from Persian/Arabic.

      
      

      • temiz (clean) - tertemiz (spotless)

      • sefil (miserable) - sersefil (very miserable)

      • perişan (distraught) - perperişan (wretched, very distraught)

        
        

   2. It creates the intensive forms of some adjectives of onomatopoeic origin.

      
      

      • çabuk (fast, quick) - çarçabuk (very quick, in the blink of an eye)

      • sıklam* (not used as a standalone adjective) - sırsıklam (drenched, very wet)

      • çıplak (naked) - çırçıplak (butt naked)

   
   

Exceptions

Some emphatic adjectives in Turkish have alternative forms with vowel mutation between the intensifying prefix and the base adjective. This only occurs in the following four words.

• sapsağlam - sapasağlam (very sturdy)

• yapyalnız - yapayalnız (all alone)

• düpdüz - düpedüz (downright, straight up)

• güpgündüz - güpegündüz (in broad daylight, in a way that is clearly visible to the public eye)

Sırsıklam and çırçıplak have alternative forms, which have been modified to better resemble the onomatopoeia of what they represent.

• sırsıklam - sırılsıklam (drenched → şırıl - water sound)

• çırçıplak - çırılçıplak (butt naked → cıbıl - sound of flesh hitting each other)

sırılsıklam ve tertemiz kedi

Here is a detailed list of other emphatic verbs.

Adjective	Meaning	Emphatic Form (p, r, s, m)	Emphatic Meaning
açık	open, clear	apaçık	very clear, obvious
temiz	clean	tertemiz	very clean, squaky clean
belli	evident, obvious	besbelli	very obvious
başka	different, other	bambaşka	very different, unique
bayağı	ordinary	basbayağı	simply, just
boş	empty	bomboş	very empty
bütün	all, whole	büsbütün	completely
canlı	healthy, alive, vivid	capcanlı	very vivid
çabuk	quick, fast	çarçabuk (adv.)	quickly
çıplak	naked	çırılçıplak*	bare naked/butt-naked
dızlak	bald	dımdızlak	bald, empty-handed
dik	straight, upright	dimdik	very straight, strong
doğru	right, straight	dosdoğru	straight, directly
dolu	full	dopdolu	full (like sardines)
düz	flat, straight	dümdüz	very flat
düz	straight	düpedüz (adv.)	obviously, clearly
ince	thin, slender	ipince	very thin
kalın	thick	kapkalın	very thick
kara	black, dark	kapkara	very dark
karanlık	dark / darkness	kapkaranlık	very dark
katı	hard, rigid	kaskatı	very rigid
koca	large, huge	koskoca	very large, enormous
kocaman	large, huge	koskocaman	very large, enormous
kuru	dry	kupkuru	very dry
kütük	stump, log	körkütük aşık/sarhoş	very in love / very drunk
parça	piece	paramparça	very little pieces
pis	dirty	pimpis	very dirty
sıcak	hot	sımsıcak	very candid, frank, sincere
sıkı	tight, strict	sıpsıkı / sımsıkı	very tight
ıslak > sıklam	wet	sırsıklam / sırılsıklam	soaking wet
sağlam	strong, durable	sapasağlam	very strong, very durable
sivri	sharp	sipsivri	very sharp
soğuk	cold	sopsoğuk	very cold
takır	a rattling sound	tamtakır	completely empty
tamam	all, whole	tastamam	completely, an exact fit
taze	fresh	taptaze	very fresh
temiz	clean	tertemiz	squeaky clean
toparlak	round	tostoparlak	very round
uzun	long	upuzun	very long
yalnız	alone, lonely	yapayalnız	very lonely, all alone
yeni	new	yepyeni	very new, brand new
Renkler	Anlamı	Emphatic Form	Anlamı
beyaz	white	bembeyaz	very white
kırmızı	red	kıpkırmızı	very red
mavi	blue	masmavi	very blue
mor	purple	mosmor	very purple
pembe	pink	pespembe	very pink
sarı	yellow	sapsarı	very yellow
siyah	black	simsiyah	very black
turuncu	orange	tupturuncu	very orange
yeşil	green	yemyeşil	very green

Are we missing any?

Let us know in comments!