Inflectional Suffixes
The plural suffix (çoğul eki) can be used with nouns and with third-person verbs:
| Plural suffix |
|---|
| -ler |
The case-endings (durum ekleri from dur- "stop, last", or hâl ekleri from hâl "state, condition") can be named (in English) and used roughly as in Latin:
| Case-endings | |
|---|---|
| absolute (yalın "bare" durum) | — |
| definite accusative (belirtme "clarifying" durumu) | -(y)i |
| dative (yönelme "going-towards" durumu) | -(y)e |
| locative (bulunma "being-found" durumu) | -de |
| ablative (çıkma "going-out" durumu) | -den |
| genitive (tamlayan "compounding" eki) | -(n)in |
If a case-ending is attached to a demonstrative pronoun (which ends in o or u), or to a noun that has already taken a third-person ending of possession (given below), then the case-ending is preceded by n (and the parenthetical y is not used).
Nouns derived from verbs in several ways. The number of ways of forming verbal nouns (fiil isimleri) from verb-stems can be debated; here are three:
| Verbal-noun suffixes | |
|---|---|
| infinitive (mastar "template") | -mek |
| gerund | -me |
| Way of doing VERB | -iş |
Several series of endings show distinctions of person (kişi); they are given here, along with the personal pronouns for comparison:
| Indicators of person | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| person | 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| number | sing | pl | sing | pl | sing/pl | pl | |
| personal pronouns | ben | biz | sen | siz | o | onlar | |
| suffixes of possession (iyelik ekleri) | -(i)m | -(i)miz | -(i)n | -(i)niz | -(s)i | -leri | |
| personal endings (kişi ekleri) | predicative (I) | -(y)im | -(y)iz | -sin | -siniz | — | -ler |
| verbal (II) | -m | -k | -n | -niz | — | -ler | |
| optative (III) | -(y)eyim | -(y)elim | -(y)esin | -(y)esiniz | -(y)e | -(y)eler | |
| imperative (IV) | — | -(y)in(iz) | -sin | -sinler | |||
The names given to the personal endings here are not standard. These endings are often just referred to as type I, II, III, and IV respectively; but the order in which the types are numbered is also not standard. It should also be noted that Lewis (1967) refers to the suffixes of possession as "personal" endings. However, of the endings called personal in Turkish and in this article:
- those labelled "predicative" above can be used to turn nouns into verbs;
- those labelled "verbal" attach only to verb-stems.
In the 3rd person, plural number is not always explicitly marked, and the same form is used for both singular and plural. If the plural suffix -ler is used, it combines with the personal endings as indicated in the final column of the table.
A suffix of possession gives the person of a possessor of the object named by the noun to which the suffix is attached; it also indicates a subject for a participle.
A predicative ending can assign a person to a noun, thus creating a complete sentence:
ada "island"; Adayım "I am an island."See also Copula#Turkish and Turkish copula.
All of the personal suffixes can be used in the formation of verbs. Verb-stems have been mentioned. A verb-base is obtained from a verb-stem by attachment of certain suffixes or characteristics given below. Then the personal endings here called "predicative" and "verbal" attach only to verb-bases; the optative and imperative endings attach to verb-stems.
| Characteristics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| with predicative endings | progressive | -mekte | |
| necessitative | -meli | ||
| aorist (habitual) |
positive | -(i/e)r | |
| negative | -mez | ||
| impotential | -(y)emez | ||
| future | -(y)ecek | ||
| inferential perfective | -miş | ||
| imperfective | -iyor | ||
| with verbal endings | perfective | -di | |
| conditional | -se | ||
The present characteristic is not fully enclitic: the first syllable shows vowel harmony, but the second is invariable. The aorist negative and impotential characteristics are given here because they are anomalous. Note, that the "-z" of the aorist negative (-mez) and impotential (-(y)emez) is dropped in the 1st person singular and plural, in order to be able to suffix it. (Aorist negative 1st person singular: -mem; BUT: Aorist impotential 3rd person plural: -(y)emezler) The non-aorist characteristics can be suffixed to the following endings:
| negative | -me |
|---|---|
| impotential | -(y)eme |
See #Negation and potential in verb-stems under #Verbs below.
Some third-person verbs are also participles. Participles can be classified as personal, if they take a suffix of possession, and impersonal, if they do not. The following suffixes attach to verb-stems:
| Participial endings | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| impersonal | personal | ||
| aorist | positive | -(i/e)r | |
| negative | -mez | ||
| impotential | -(y)emez | ||
| imperfective | -(y)en | ||
| future | -(y)ecek | ||
| perfective | -miş | -dik | |
The interrogative particle (soru eki) is not written as a suffix, but it is enclitic:
| Interrogative particle |
|---|
| mi |
Read more about this topic: Turkish Grammar