Turkish Possessive Suffixes

Learn how to say my, your, his, her, its, our, and their in Turkish

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Possessive Suffixes in Turkish

To say “my school”, “his car” in Turkish, we add certain suffixes to the word.

anne - mother; mom (ending in a vowel)

annem	my mother	annemiz	our mother
annen	your mother (singular)	anneniz	your mother (plural)
annesi	his/her/its mother	anneleri	their mother

Possessive suffixes follow the rules of Vowel Harmony. The construction is quite similar to the suffix “to be”.

For the suffixes “my” and “your”, words ending in a vowel get –m and –n respectively, without the need of an additional vowel.

āile >> āile+m >> āilem “my family”

araba >> araba+m >> arabam “my car”

If the last vowel (or the only vowel) of the word is a or ı, then the vowel of the suffix is ı.

araba >> araba+mız >> arabamız “our car”

If the last vowel (or the only vowel) of the word is o or u, then the vowel of the suffix is u.

uyku >> uyku+su>> uykusu “his/her/its sleep”

If the last vowel (or the only vowel) of the word is e or i, then the vowel of the suffix is i.

kedi >> kedi+niz >> kediniz “your cat” (plural)

If the last vowel (or the only vowel) of the word is ö or ü, then the vowel of the suffix is ü.

türkü >> türkü+müz >> türkümüz “our folk song”

The suffix for “their” is either –ları or –leri, depending on the last vowel of the word being an A-undotted vowel or an E-dotted vowel.

arabaları “their car(s)”

ev - house (ending in a consonant)

evim	my house	evimiz	our house
evin	your house (singular)	eviniz	your house (plural)
evi	his/her/its house	evleri	their house

When the word ends in a consonant, a vowel is added before the suffix. This is the same vowel with the one in the suffix, as can be seen in the examples below.

ev >> ev + i + miz >> evimiz “our house”

köy >> köy + ü + nüz >> köyünüz “your village” (plural)

If the word ends in a consonant, the letter s is omitted from the suffix for “his/her/its”.

at >> at + ı >> atı “his/her/its horse”

· The suffix for “their” –leri/–ları remains unchanged even if the word ends in a consonant.

Turkish Phrases, Vocabulary and Grammar