Turkish/Pronouns

Statement of learning goals for this resource

From this lesson you will understand the basic Turkish pronouns and how to use them in sentences.

Basic Pronouns

Word
Turkish	English
Ben	I
Sen	You
O	He/She/It
Biz	We
Siz	You
Onlar	they

To be

The verb "to be" in Turkish is always an ending added to the noun. These endings are either -im, -sin, -iz, -siniz, or -ler depending on the pronoun.

Below is an example using the Turkish word for pretty: güzel.

Pronoun	Turkish	To be	Example	English
I	Ben	-im	Ben güzelim	I am pretty.
You (singular)	Sen	-sin	Sen güzelsin	You are pretty.
He/she	O	none	O güzel	He/she is pretty.
We	Biz	-iz	Biz güzeliz	We are pretty.
You (plural)	Siz	-siniz	Siz güzelsiniz	You are pretty.
They	Onlar	-ler	Onlar güzeller	They are pretty.

Dropping the Personal Pronoun

In Turkish, the personal pronoun is usually assumed in a sentence. Thus, most of the time it is dropped. For example:

Original	Dropped Pronoun
Ben güzelim.	Güzelim.
Sen güzelsin.	Güzelsin.
O Güzel.	Güzel.
Biz güzeliz.	Güzeliz.
Siz güzelsiniz.	Güzelsiniz.
Onlar güzeller.	Güzeller.

Practice

Complete the following examples using the vocab provided below.

English	Turkish
I am happy.	Ben mutluyum
You (singular) are big.	Sen büyüksün
He/She/It is good.	O iyi.
We are hot.	Biz sıcağız.
You (plural) are cold.	Siz soğuksunuz.
They are white.	Onlar beyaz. Onlar beyaz

Vocab

iyi = good

beyaz = white

mutlu = happy

sıcak = hot

soğuk = cold

büyük = big

Two Vowels in a Row

When you add a "to be" suffix to a word, and the result has two vowels in a row, you add a -y- between them as a buffer. For example:

"iyi" means good. To say "I am good", you add the -im suffix. The result is iyiim but since you cannot have two "i"s together, you add the -y- which makes iyiyim, meaning "I am good".