Log in or register to save completed lessons.
Prerequisites for this Lesson
Negative verbs-mıyor
-mıyor musun?
-mamak
How to use “bunun üzerine”
Grammar form:
- (Sentence1 explains something that happened). Bunun üzerine… (sentence2 explains the reaction to sentence1).
“Bunun üzerine” is a phrase that is used to connect two sentences together in the past tense. This phrase is used when describing that a certain behavior was a reaction to something that was described in the previous sentence. While it literally means “onto this,” it can be translated using words like “after,” “when,” “since,” “because” or “so.” This phrase can be tricky to translate into English because there a lot of different ways we connect sentences together to convey this meaning.
-
Examples
Yemek pişmemişti. Bunun üzerine biz de yemek pişene kadar oyun oynadık.
Since the food hadn’t [finished] cooking, we played a game until it [finished] cooking.
Mehmet benimle parka gelemeyeceğini söyledi. Bunun üzerine parka gitmek yerine evde kaldım.
Mehmet said he couldn’t come with me to the park. So instead of going to the park I stayed home.
Arkadaşım geleceğini söyledi. Bu nedenle kek yapmıştım, ama gelmedi. Bunun üzerine komşulara çay yapıp kek ikram ettim.
My friend said he was coming so I made a cake, but he didn’t come. So [after realizing he wasn’t going to come], I made tea and shared the cake with the neighbors.
Oğlum yürürken, sallancakta sallanan bir kız ona fena çarptı. Bunun üzerine herkes koşa koşa yardımına geldi.
When my son was walking along, a girl who was swinging on a swing ran into him. After that, everyone came running to help.
Bir defa lokantada yemek yerken, yemeğimden böcek çıktı. Bunun üzerine o lokantaya bir daha gitmedim.
One time when I was eating at that restaurant, I found a bug in my food. Because of that I haven’t gone back to that restaurant.
Comparing with similar Turkish phrases
Unlike the English words “after,” “when,” “since,” “because” and “so,” the Turkish phrase “bunun üzerine” can only be used for past tense sentences. For similar usage in other tenses, here are some Turkish phrases that have approximately the same meaning to “bunun üzerine” but can be used in any tense:
- Bundan dolayı (because of this)
- Bu nedenle (for this reason)
- Bu yüzden (because of this)
- Bundan ötürü (because of this)
- Bundan sonra (after this)
Note that each of these can also be used with the pronoun “O” instead of “Bu” and they will have approximately the same meaning. “Şu” is also an option but it is rarely used.
Additional resources
- Türkçe Öğreniyorum, Yüksek Türkçe: page 89.
- This page has 8 fill-in-the-blank exercise questions.