Birbiriyle

Birbiriyle is a Turkish expression used to mark reciprocity between two or more participants. It functions as a compound form meaning “with each other” or “one another,” and is typically placed before the verb in a sentence. The standard spelling is birbiriyle; when the subject is plural, a related form birbirleriyle is also common. Both variants convey mutual or reciprocal action rather than action directed at a single person.

In usage, birbiriyle expresses actions performed mutually by the subjects. Examples include: “İki arkadaş birbirileriyle konuşuyorlar” (The two friends are talking with each other) and “Kediler birbirleriyle oynuyor” (The cats are playing with one another). The expression can also appear with different sentence structures to indicate reciprocal relations across clauses, such as questions or negations: “Birbirleriyle mi çalışıyorsunuz?” (Are you working with each other?)

Morphology and related forms: birbiriyle originates from the combination of the reciprocal sense of birbiri with ile/yle meaning “with.” A closely related family includes birbiri, birbirimiz, birbirinize, and birbirleriniz, which appear in various cases and possessive forms to express reciprocal relations involving different persons or pronouns (us, you all, etc.). In some contexts, Turkish speakers also use birbirine or birbirlerine to emphasize direction toward or from specific participants.

See also: karşılıklı (mutual), birbirine bakmak (to look at each other), reciprocal constructions in Turkish grammar.