Possession

Formation

The possessive is a suffix added to the noun owned, by four-way harmony, in two series: after a consonant, and after a vowel. After a vowel the first vowel of the suffix is dropped, and the third person singular takes buffer s: araba → arabası. The third person plural, -lArI, has two-way harmony in its first syllable.

Consonant softening

Before the vowel of the suffix, a final p, ç, t, k is softened as before every vowel suffix, explained in Consonant softening: kitaba, ağaca, sokağa: kitap → kitabım, ağaç → ağacı, sokak → sokağımız, renk → rengi. Nouns of one syllable are usually not softened: top → topum, saç → saçım. Before -ları nothing changes: kitapları.

Use

The possessive suffix is enough to say “my”, “your”, “his”: Evim küçük (“My house is small”). The genitive pronoun before it (benim evim) is added only for stress or contrast. A plural noun takes the plural first, then the possessive: ev-ler-im (“my houses”). The form evleri can mean “their house”, “their houses” or “his houses”; the sentence shows which.

Formation

The genitive (“of”, English ’s) is formed with -(n)In, by four-way harmony: -in, -ın, -un, -ün after a consonant, with buffer n after a vowel: -nin, -nın, -nun, -nün. A final p, ç, t, k is softened: çocuk → çocuğun. The personal pronouns have their own forms, two of them irregular, benim and bizim. The question word is kimin? (whose?).

Use

The noun in the genitive names the owner, and the thing owned takes the possessive suffix of the same person: Ali'nin annesi (“Ali’s mother”), benim evim (“my house”), bizim okulumuz (“our school”). Both suffixes are needed; the genitive pronoun alone, before a noun with no suffix, is wrong. The genitive pronoun may also stand alone as a predicate: Bu çanta benim (“This bag is mine”).

Formation

Turkish has no verb “to have”. Possession is expressed with the noun owned, its possessive suffix and var (“there is”) or yok (“there is not”): Arabam var (“I have a car”, word for word “my car exists”), Zamanım yok (“I have no time”). The owner may be named in the genitive: Ali'nin arabası var, Benim iki kardeşim var. The question is var mı?, yok mu?, with the particle written apart.

Use

After a number, the noun stays singular: İki kızım var (“I have two daughters”). The short answer is Var or Yok. Something carried with one is expressed with the locative of the owner, as in Bende kalem var, set out in Personal pronouns in the cases: bana, beni, bende, benden. The past, vardı and yoktu, is given in The past of the copula: evdeydim, yorgundu, vardı.

Formation

Two nouns are joined in two ways, and in both the second noun takes the possessive suffix of the third person. When the first noun names a particular owner, it takes the genitive: Ali'nin arabası (“Ali’s car”), okulun bahçesi (“the school’s garden”). When the first noun only says what kind of thing the second one is, it takes no suffix: Türk kahvesi (“Turkish coffee”), otobüs durağı (“bus stop”), İstanbul Üniversitesi.

Use

A compound with no genitive names a kind of thing and is used as one word. With another owner, the third-person suffix is replaced by the suffix of that owner: doğum günü → doğum günüm (“my birthday”), Elif'in telefon numarası (“Elif’s telephone number”). A case ending after a compound takes buffer n, as A case after his or her: arabasında, evine sets out: otobüs durağında.

Formation

Where an owner is itself owned, the middle noun takes two suffixes, first the possessive and then the genitive with buffer n: anne + si + nin → annesinin. In Ali'nin annesinin arabası (“Ali’s mother’s car”), the first noun has the genitive, the middle noun the possessive and the genitive, the last noun the possessive.

Formation

After the possessive suffix of the third person, -(s)I or -lArI, a case ending is preceded by buffer n: the locative is -nDA, the dative -nA, the ablative -nDAn, the accusative -nI. After the other possessive suffixes, the case ending is added directly: evimde, evine (“to your house”), evimizden.

Use

The buffer n is also found after a compound, otobüs durağına, and after the place nouns of Positions: masanın üstünde, evin önünde: masanın üstünde. Some forms belong to two persons: evinde is ev-in-de (“in your house”) or ev-i-n-de (“in his house”); a genitive before the noun shows which, senin evinde or onun evinde.

Formation

A few nouns of two syllables lose the vowel of their last syllable before a suffix that begins with a vowel: the possessive, the accusative, the dative. The suffix is then chosen by harmony with the remaining vowel. Before a suffix that begins with a consonant, the noun is unchanged.

Use

These nouns are learnt one by one: most nouns of the same shape keep their vowel (okul → okulum, otobüs → otobüsü). Dictionaries show the change with the third-person form: ağız (ağzı).

Formation

The suffix -ki has three uses at A1. After a genitive, it makes a pronoun, “the one of”: benimki (“mine”), seninki, onunki, bizimki, sizinki, onlarınki, Ali'ninki (“Ali’s”). After a locative, it makes an adjective of place, “the one at”: evdeki kitap (“the book at home”), masadaki bardak (“the glass on the table”). After a time word, it makes an adjective of time, “of”: bugünkü gazete (“today’s newspaper”). -ki is not subject to vowel harmony: it is always -ki, except in bugünkü and dünkü.

Use

A word with -ki after a locative stands before the noun, like an adjective: bahçedeki ağaç (“the tree in the garden”). The pronoun in -ki takes the plural and the case endings, with buffer n before a case: benimkiler (“mine”, several things), benimkini (“mine”, as an object).