Turkish Grammar - Pronouns

Pronouns

The third-person personal pronoun o "she/he/it" is declined as if it were the noun on. The other persons, ben "I", sen "thou", biz "we", siz "you", are declined like nouns, except for a vowel change in the dative, and an anomalous genitive; also the plural forms do not involve -ler:

	singular			plural
	1	2	3	1	2	3
absolute	ben	sen	o	biz	siz	onlar
accusative	beni	seni	onu	bizi	sizi	onları
dative	bana	sana	ona	bize	size	onlara
locative	bende	sende	onda	bizde	sizde	onlarda
ablative	benden	senden	ondan	bizden	sizden	onlardan
genitive	benim	senin	onun	bizim	sizin	onların

The absolute case is generally needed only for emphasis:

Nasılsınız? "How are you?" İyiyim; siz nasılsınız? "I am fine; how are you?" Ben de iyiyim. "I too am fine."

The third-person pronoun can clear up an ambiguity mentioned above:

onların fikri "their idea"; onların fikirleri "their ideas"; onun fikirleri "her ideas".

The pronoun o is also one of the demonstrative pronouns:

• o "that";
• bu "this";
• şu "this or that" (thing pointed to).

The latter two are declined like o (that is, treated as if they were bun and şun).

The interrogative pronouns (and adjectives) are:

• kim "who";
• ne "what";
• hangi "which";
• kaç "how many" or "how much".

These serve as relative pronouns only in a limited way:

Buzdolabında kaçtane var, o bilir "S/he knows how many are in the refrigerator."

There is a suffix -ki, borrowed from Persian, that acts as a relative pronoun in that it creates what, in English, would be called relative clauses. It does not display vowel harmony, except in a few common formations:

benimki "mine (that which is mine)"; buzdolabındaki bira "beer that is in the refrigerator" (no vowel harmony); bugünkü "today's (which is today)" (with vowel harmony); dünkü "yesterday's (which was yesterday)" (with vowel harmony).

The reflexive pronoun (dönüşlü zamir from dön- "turn") is kendi "own, self":

Kendi kendinden korkma "Do not be afraid of thyself."

Many of the indefinite adjectives can function as pronouns, taking case-endings.