Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

The combination her+numeral, with or without the addition of the clitic dA (11.1.1.2) to
the noun phrase head, is equivalent to ‘all’+numeral in English:
(82) Her dört daireyi (de) beğendik.
‘We liked all four flat.’
Even if her is not present, placing dA after a noun phrase containing a numeral modifer
has the effect of giving the phrase definite reference (cf. 18.4 (ii), 22.1):
(83) (Her) iki çocuk da uyumuş.
‘Both children had gone to sleep.’
15.9.2 DETERMINERS OR NUMERALS WITH ADJECTIVES
Definite determiners and numerals normally precede adjectives:
(84) o küçük dolap
‘that small cupboard’
(85) aynı tatsız yemekler
‘the same tasteless food’
(86) üç tarihi şehir
‘(the) three historic cities’
However, if the superlative marker en is present (15.4.3), the position of a numeral is
after the adjective:
(87)
Adjectival constructions, determiners and numerals 185
(a) dört başarılı öğrenci
‘(the) four successful students’
(b) en başarılı dört öğrenci
‘the four most successful students’
The indefinite article bir usually follows the adjective, but can precede it:
(88) genç bir adam/bir genç adam
‘a young man’
(89) açık bir pencere/bir açık pencere
‘an open window’
There is a subtle difference in meaning between the two word orders with the indefinite
article. Because modification within nominal phrases in Turkish operates from left to
right, placing the adjectival to the left of bir has the effect of making the sequence
{adjectival+head} be perceived as a semantic unit. Thus in (88) the form bir genç adam
denotes a member of the class ‘young man’, whereas the form genç bir adam denotes a
young member of the class ‘man’. This latter order, which is much the more common,
gives more prominence to the adjective.
Where bir means ‘one’ (usually in relation to an already mentioned set), it always
precedes an adjective, is pronounced as [ ] or ↓ [bi] and receives stress: