The -en / -an participle (subject relative)
English uses 'who' and 'that' to make relative clauses ('the man who is coming', 'the book that fell'). Turkish doesn't use a relative pronoun — instead, the verb itself takes the suffix -en / -an, becoming an adjective that sits before the noun. Gelen adam = the man who is coming (literally 'the coming man'). Düşen kitap = the book that fell. This is the subject participle: the relative clause's missing piece is the subject of the inner verb. Lessons 31 and 32 cover the object and future participles.
How to form it
Drop -mek/-mak from the infinitive and add -en (after e/i/ö/ü) or -an (after a/ı/o/u). Two-way harmony, like -erek. gelmek → gel- + -en → gelen = (the one) coming. bakmak → bak- + -an → bakan = (the one) looking. görmek → gören. konuşmak → konuşan. If the stem ends in a vowel, insert buffer -y-: beklemek → bekle- + -y- + -en → bekleyen = (the one) waiting. yemek → yiyen (with stem-shift).
Subject = whatever is missing in the relative clause
-en/-an works only when the relative clause is missing its subject. 'The man who is coming' — 'who' is the subject of 'is coming' → use -en: gelen adam. 'The boy who ate the apple' — 'who' is the subject of 'ate' → elmayı yiyen çocuk. Compare: 'the apple that the boy ate' — 'that' is the object, not the subject → you need a different participle (-dik, lesson 31). Rule of thumb: if you can replace 'who' with 'is V-ing' and the meaning works, use -en/-an.
The participle goes BEFORE the noun
Turkish, like English with adjectives, puts the modifier first: gelen adam, düşen kitap, konuşan kız. Anything else inside the relative clause (objects, time markers, place phrases) goes before the participle: kitap okuyan çocuk = the child reading a book. erken kalkan kuş = the early-rising bird. dün gelen mektup = the letter that came yesterday. The participle hugs the noun on the left.
Tense: present and past collapsed
-en/-an doesn't carry tense — it's neutral between present and past. Gelen adam can mean 'the man who is coming' OR 'the man who came', depending on context. Turkish lets context decide. If you really need to mark past explicitly, you can use gelmiş olan adam (a longer participle phrase), but gelen is normal even for past meaning. Dün düşen kitap = the book that fell yesterday — past meaning is clear from dün.
Negative: -meyen / -mayan
Insert -me/-ma before the participle: -meyen / -mayan. Gelmeyen adam = the man who isn't / didn't come. Çalışmayan ev = the house that doesn't work / a non-functioning house. Anlamayan öğrenci = the student who doesn't understand. The buffer -y- appears because -me/-ma ends in a vowel.
Standalone use: 'the one who Vs'
Drop the noun and -en/-an behaves like 'the one who'. Gelen alone = the one coming. Anlayan parmak kaldırsın. = Whoever understood, raise your hand. Bilmiyen sussun. (colloquial) = Let those who don't know be quiet. This is extremely common in Turkish: soran, bilen, gören — 'whoever asks/knows/sees'. The participle becomes a noun when it doesn't need its head noun.
