The Personal Endings (PEs) --
How to use'm, not abuse'm...

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. That's right, we too use these pages for reference. And with our private Web Page Search Engine, we can find just the right information, pretty fast -- and easily. Now, if we could only convince our Internet Service Providers to supply an Online Search Engine for you gentle readers... Well, wouldn' tha' be nice... Until that happens, try finding what you need on the LPT Site Contents and Index page 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 generally attach to nouns and pronouns and that are meant to show possession -- and that usually have nothing to do with verb-related constructions. [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 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 цgretmenim I am a teacher gidiyorum They say I go -m цgretmendim I was a teacher gitmistim I had gone -im kitabIm my book цrьmcegim my spider -m kapIm my door sapkam my hat -sin gidiyorsun you are going delisin you're crazy -n gidiyordun you were going delidin you were crazy -in kalemin your pen fIncanIn your coffee cup -n kedin your cat araban your car (-dir) [doesn't have to be present always ...] avukattIr she's a lawyer uзacak- he will fly -- (no personal ending) avukattI she was a lawyer- uзtu- he flew -i bisikleti his bicycle gцzlьgь her eyeglasses -si masasI his table havlusu her towel -(y)iz iyiyiz we are well evlenecegiz we will marry gьleriz we laugh -k iyidik we were well evlendik we married gьldьk we laughed -imiz makbuzumuz our receipt sekerimiz our candy -miz цlзьmьz our measurement iзkimiz our drink -siniz kцtьsьnьz you are bad misafirimizsiniz you are our guests geliyor musunuz? are you all coming? -niz kцtьdьnьz you were bad misafirimizdiniz you were our guests geliyor muydunuz? were you all coming? -iniz makasInIz your scissors feneriniz your flashlight -niz ayakkabInIz 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 aзIyorlar they are opening gitmeyecekler mi? aren't they going to go? gцrьrler they see (Example where no verbal ending required) domuzlar kokar- pigs stink -ler tembeldiler they were lazy aзtIlar they opened gitmediler mi? didn't they go? -leri koltuklarI their easy chair gьnleri their days -leri anneleri their mother(s) babalarI their father(s)

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... зocuklarI can mean his/her/its children -- that's because 'зocuklar' 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... зocuklarI can mean their child -- that's because 'зocuk' can represent the singular of 'child' and, when you attach the 3rd person plural, Personal Possessive Ending 'larI' it means 'their'. Thus, their child... зocuklarI can mean their children -- that's because 'зocuklar' 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.) зocuklarI can mean the children -- that's because 'зocuklar' can represent the plural of 'child' and when you attach the 'direct object' Case Ending 'I' (which is identical in appearance to the 3rd person singular, Personal Possessive Ending), it means 'the'. Thus, the children... In another confusing instance, зocuklarIn can mean... your children -- that's because 'зocuklar' can represent the plural of 'child' and, when you attach the Personal Possessive Ending 'In' it means 'your' which results in your children... of the children -- that's because 'зocuklar' can represent the plural of 'child' and when you attach the Case Ending 'In' - 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'll talk more about Case Endings on another page. (sometime...) Does any of this make sense to you, Marvin? Uh... 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 addressed by 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 --- --- çogumuz most of us --- --- çogunuz most of you çogu (as pronoun) most of it, most of them çoklarI, as in bir çoklarI a good many of them çogu (as adjective), e.g. çogu zaman most times, most often --- ---

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