Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

Adjectival constructions, determiners and numerals 177
‘a member more enthusiastic than any of us’
Alternatively, it can be used with a phrase of comparison containing kıyasla, oranla or
nazaran ‘compared with’:
(42) Semra’ya kıyasla daha becerikli
‘more efficient than Semra’
The complement of daha can be a non-finite noun clause (24.4):
(43) [Beni son gördüğünüz]-den daha iyiyim.
‘I’m better than [when you last saw me].’
The complement of daha can be omitted when the person or object to which someone or
something is compared is obvious from the context:
(44) Size (bu evden) daha uygun bir ev düşünemiyorum.
‘I cannot think of a more suitable house for you (than this house).’
Alternatively, daha can be omitted if an ablative complement is present:
(45) Bu makine öbüründen ucuz.
‘This machine is cheaper than the other one.’
The clitic dA (11.1.1.2, 28.3.1.1 (iiib)) inserted between the ablative complement and the
adjective in the above type of construction has the sense of ‘even’:
(46) Bu makine öbüründen de ucuz.
‘This machine is even cheaper than the other one.’
daha can modify an adjective which is the head of a genitive-possessive construction
(14.4) or is otherwise being used pronominally (18.4):
(47) bu resm-in daha güzel-i
this picture-GEN more nice-3SG.POSS
‘a nicer [version] of this picture’
(48) bu resimden daha güzel-i
‘a picture nicer than this one’
To express the notion less, Turkish uses the phrase daha az:
(49) bizimkinden daha az gürültülü bir sokak
‘a street less noisy than ours’
Note that az used without a preceding daha in a comparative construction is a colloquial
and shortened form of biraz ‘a little’, and expresses ‘a little more’ (not ‘less’). The same
meaning is conveyed by az daha:
(50) bundan az (daha) büyük bir araba
‘a car slightly bigger than this one’