© 2011 - 2018 Turkish Basics
Design: styleshout
Possession
Possession in Turkish works using pronouns and suffixes. Each pronoun is associated with its own suffix. The suffixes may take on different forms depending on the last letter and the last vowel of the original word. There are six pronouns of possession:
| My | Benim |
| Your | Senin |
| His / Her / Its | Onun |
| Our | Bizim |
| Your (Plural) | Sizin |
| Their | Onların |
Each suffix has more than one form. We choose the correct form of the suffix based on the last vowel of our original word. This is done to preserve Vowel Harmony.
| Last Vowel ▶ | a/ı | e/i | o/u | ö/ü |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Benim | -(ı)m | -(i)m | -(u)m | -(ü)m |
| Senin | -(ı)n | -(i)n | -(u)n | -(ü)n |
| Onun | -[s]ı | -[s]i | -[s]u | -[s]ü |
| Bizim | -(ı)mız | -(i)miz | -(u)muz | -(ü)müz |
| Sizin | -(ı)nız | -(i)niz | -(u)nuz | -(ü)nüz |
| Onların | -ları | -leri | -ları | -leri |
Examples:
Benim çantam - My bag
Senin annen - Your mother
Onun topu - His/Her/Its ball
Bizim arabamız - Our car
Sizin kuzunuz - Your (Plural) lamb
Onların kitapları - Their book
When adding suffixes to a word, we make sure that we never have two vowels side-by-side.
Letters indicated inside round brackets () in the Suffixes of Possession table should be added when the last letter of the original word is a consonant. Eg.:
Adım - My name
Evin - Your house
Otelimiz - Our hotel
Okulunuz - Your (Plural) school
For "Onun", the letter "s" indicated inside square brackets [s] in the Suffixes of Possession table above should be added when the last letter of the original word is a vowel. Eg.:
Onun parası - His/Her/Its money
Onun dedesi - His/Her/Its grandfather
Onun havlusu - His/Her/Its towel