[Learn Turkish Home Page] [Beginners] [Table of Contents] [Questions or Comments]

[Habibullah Speaks!] [Latest website updates]

[Search the whole website] [Online Turkish word dictionary]

Identify this Famous Turk... Click for enlargement! To Jim and Peri's Commercial-free CD for Turkish Learning -- now with triple ebook bonus! Also available in Downloadable Broadband Edition

Personal Endings (PEs) "Türkçeyi öğrenmek ekleri öğrenmektir." "In order to learn Turkish, you have to learn the suffixes." Jean Deny The Personal Endings (PEs) -- How to use'm, not abuse'm... Related pages: Translating Turkish, the basics Translating Turkish, advanced Essential Turkish Vocabulary Turkish Verbs Essential Idioms, Index Essential Suffixes, Index Sentence Structure, Standard Sentence Structure Variations Turkish Pronunciation Turkish Accenting Numbers in Turkish Other Turkish Language Difficulties Also Related: Saying 'if' in Turkish A Turkish Language-Learning Fable Towards Better, Kinder Turkish Language Usage A Collision Between Turkish Language and Political Correctness In the Minority? We may be in an inconsequential minority here, but we've muddled up our personal endings... (Not those personal endings! We mean the ones attached as suffixes to Turkish verb stems, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs...) ...more than once, so we've decided to discuss the two varieties that have given us the most trouble, together on a single page -- the better for us to observe and compare them during (recurrent) lapses of memory. But we're not as mad as we may first appear -- because in many ways the personal endings for the verb stems, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs are very similar. Have a look for yourself, in the following paragraphs. Personal Endings (PEs) -- Definitions The Personal Verbal Endings/suffixes: are those PEs that you attach to verb stems, nouns, and adjectives -- to form verb-related constructions. [For Example: When you attach the Personal Verbal Ending, '-ler', to the Wide-tense (Aorist) verb stem of görmek (which is görür), you get görürler; they see]. For more info, see the Side-by-side Comparison Chart. The Personal Possessive Endings/suffixes: are those PEs that you attach to nouns and pronouns and that are meant to show possession. [For Example: When you attach the Personal Possessive Ending '-leri' to 'anne', you get anneleri; their mother] For more info, see the Side-by-side Comparison Chart. or If you're really determined to see these endings used for verb-related constructions, then go ahead and click here. Or have a romp on the Verbal Nouns page... Or jump below to see all the oddball uses of the PPE. But, remember how we tried to keep it nice n' easy for ya'... Side by Side Comparison of the Personal Verbal and the Personal Possessive Endings/suffixes Special Note !!! All endings in the following chart are subject to the Rule of Vowel Harmony... Personal Verbal Endings (PVE) Personal Possessive Endings (PPE) Type I [attach to nouns, adjectives, and verb stems (except the definite past tense, -di stem)] Type II [only attach after the definite past tense, -di stem] After Consonants After Vowels -(y)im öğretmenim I am a teacher gidiyormuşum It's said that I am going -m öğretmendim I was a teacher gitmiştim I had gone -im kitabım my book örümceğim my spider -m kapım my door şapkam my hat -sin gidiyorsun you are going delisin you're crazy -n gidiyordun you were going delidin you were crazy -in kalemin your pen fıncanın your coffee cup -n kedin your cat araban your car (-dir) [doesn't have to be present always ...] avukattır she's a lawyer uçacak... he will fly ... (no personal ending) avukat... she is a lawyer uçuyor... he is flying -i bisikleti his bicycle gözlüğü her eyeglasses gözlüğü her eyeglasses rengi its color mesleği his job -si masası his table Cim'in ailesi Jim's [his] family çerçevesi its frame paltosu her coat arabanın aküsü the car's [its] battery kaynaması its boiling (action) [Note that the noun in the preceding example (kaynama) is a verbal noun (not a negative verbal command) -- and is subject to the same PPE endings as any other Turkish noun...] -(y)iz iyiyiz we are well evleneceğiz we will marry güleriz we laugh -k iyiydik we were well evlendik we married güldük we laughed -imiz makbuzumuz our receipt şekerimiz our candy -miz ölçümüz our measurement içkimiz our drink -siniz kötüsünüz you are bad misafirimizsiniz you are our guests geliyor musunuz? are you all coming? -niz kötüydünüz you were bad misafirimizdiniz you were our guests geliyor muydunuz? were you all coming? -iniz makasınız your scissors feneriniz your flashlight -niz ayakkabınız your shoes klavyeniz your keyboard -(dir)(ler) [these endings can also appear in reverse order, but they are not always present...] tembeldirler they are lazy açıyorlar they are opening gitmeyecekler mi? aren't they going to go? görürler they see (Example where no verbal ending required) domuzlar kokar- pigs stink -ler tembeldiler they were lazy açtılar they opened gitmediler mi? didn't they go? besleyemiyordular they were unable to nourish [alternative spelling: besleyemiyorlardı -- Click link to see more examples...] -leri koltukları their easy chair günleri their days -leri anneleri their mother(s) babaları their father(s) Also see Essential Turkish, Verb to be -- present tense Also see Essential Turkish, Verb to be -- past tense Confusions that may arise Since the Personal Endings are so similar to each other and because they are identical in looks to other types of endings, it's not surprising that confusion may arise in their use and interpretation. For example, depending on the sentence it's found in... çocuklarI can mean his/her/its children -- that's because 'çocuklar' can represent the plural of 'child' and, when you attach the 3rd personal singular, Personal Possessive Ending 'I' it means 'his/her/its'. Thus, his/her/its children... çocukları can mean their child -- that's because 'çocuk' can represent the singular of 'child' and, when you attach the 3rd person plural, Personal Possessive Ending 'ları' it means 'their'. Thus, their child... çocuklarI can mean their children -- that's because 'çocuklar' can represent the plural of child and, when you attach the 3rd person, Plural Personal Possessive Ending 'larI' it means 'their'. Thus, their children... (Note: You only see one 'lar' in this construction because 'larlar' can't occur in Turkish. So, one 'lar' must be dropped.) çocuklarI can mean the children -- that's because 'çocuklar' can represent the plural of 'child' and when you attach the 'direct object' Case Ending 'ı' (which is identical in appearance to the 3rd person singular, Personal Possessive Ending), it means 'the'. Thus, the children... In another confusing instance, çocukların can mean... your children -- that's because 'çocuklar' can represent the plural of 'child' and, when you attach the Personal Possessive Ending 'ın' it means 'your' which results in your children... of the children -- that's because 'çocuklar' can represent the plural of 'child' and when you attach the Case Ending 'ın' (which is identical in appearance to the Personal Possessive Ending that we just used in the previous paragraph) it means 'of' which results in of the children... No worry, mate. We talk more about all Case Endings on another page. Does any of this make sense to you, Marvin? Umm... Can I get back to you on that one, Mabel? Click here for more about "Ambiguities" like the ones above 'Oddball' Uses of the 'Personal Possessive Endings' (PPEs) It's probably too strong to call these uses 'Oddball'. Or is it? Well, we call'em 'oddball' if they are found among any of the following list items. What do you think? When attached to verb stems, the PPEs help form 'Past Personal' or 'Future Personal' Participles in Turkish... ...but sometimes not. And when not, they may simply be 'faux-participles'. The best way to quickly understand 'faux-participles' is to observe an example of one. Click the following hyper-link to see a 'faux-participle' in action. And click this next hyper-link to see another... When PPEs get involved with saying "when", we often dive for cover...Do you remember our heavy duty charts on this interesting Turkish language construction? Actually, no, I don't. Remind me, please. When PPEs are attached to interrogatives they can raise serious questions...For example, when you attach the 1st person singular PPE, '-im' to the interrogative 'ne' you get an oddball pronoun, nem or neyim meaning what of mine? And, it doesn't end there -- as the chart reveals... say what? Singular Plural nem? or neyim? what of mine? nen? or neyimiz? what of ours? nen? or neyin? what of yours? neniz? or neyiniz? what of yours (pl.)? nesi? or neyi? what of his/hers/its? neleri? what of theirs? And when PPEs are attached to certain adjectives and even adverbs, in oddball ways, we get extremely nervous...For example, when you start adding PPEs to oddball adjectives, like hangi (which) then you start getting oddball pronouns, like... which of...? Singular Plural --- --- hangimiz? which of us? --- --- hanginiz? which of you (all)? hangisi? which one of them? hangileri? which (ones) of them? Or when you anoint good ole ordinary adverbs, like çok; much, very, many with PPEs, they turn into oddball pronouns (or even adjectives) -- right before your very eyes... most... Singular Plural --- --- çoğumuz most of us --- --- çoğunuz most of you çoğu (as pronoun) most of it, most of them çokları, as in bir çokları a good many of them çoğu (as adjective), e.g. çoğu zaman most times, most often --- --- Related pages: Translating Turkish, the basics Translating Turkish, advanced Essential Turkish Vocabulary Turkish Verbs Essential Idioms, Index Essential Suffixes, Index Sentence Structure, Standard Sentence Structure Variations Turkish Pronunciation Turkish Accenting Numbers in Turkish Other Turkish Language Difficulties Also Related: Saying 'if' in Turkish A Turkish Language-Learning Fable Towards Better, Kinder Turkish Language Usage A Collision Between Turkish Language and Political Correctness Unrelated fun: Habibullah and The Great Cannon Caper Turkish Tongue Twisters Turkish Belly Dancers Turkish Terms Of Endearment Turkish Personal Names Politically Incorrect Turkish Humor Off-Color Turkish Gossipy Turkish Who's Who Turkish Kinsey Report #1 - Turkey opens up about its seks Turkish Kinsey Report #2 - Did they hear it through the grapevine? Turkish Kinsey Report #3 - Was it good for you? Turkish Kinsey Report #4 - The first time, by age group... Turkish Kinsey Report #5 - Who's gotta have it? He? Or she? Hülya Avşar -- in a league of her own Translating Danielle Steele

Please email us and tell us how we can improve the Learning Practical Turkish Web site.