Now we're going to talk about how to form present tense statements with the verb "to be" in
Turkish, so how to say things like "I'm American" or "You're a student"
Turkish has a set of endings called personal suffixes which are the equivalent of the English phrases "you are, I am"
"we are" and so on
Let's take a look. We're going to attach
these
suffixes
directly to an adjective or to a noun to form a complete sentence in only one word
Let's start with a sentence "I am a doctor."
We're going to...
just as a reminder
put the personal pronoun, "ben": I (ben) up here
but it's in parentheses because it's optional you don't actually need it to get the meaning
"I am a doctor" from this sentence so "ben"
optional
Turkish word for doctor, "doktor"
Now we're going to add the personal suffix that's going to give us the meaning "I am"
First person singular for "I" and look we've got four choices. How are we going to know which one to choose?
Well personal suffixes in Turkish follow the rules of four-way vowel harmony, four-way vowel harmony
If you need a little refresher on how four-way vowel harmony works we have a video for that
For now let's look at our four choices
"-im, -ım, -um and -üm"
The final vowel in our
word that we're attaching our personal suffix to "doktor" is "o" so, we're going to choose "-um"
Ben doktorum.
Or simply "Doktorum": I am a doctor
There you go. Let's look at the second person
singular or informal, "sen"
you singular and
again, this is optional the sound but we're putting it there for clarity
"doktor" again
Now we're going to choose the right
suffix we have a choice of "-sin, -sın, -sun and -sün"
and again because "doktor" 's
final vowel is an "o" we're going to choose "-sun". You are a doctor: "Sen doktorsun."
or simply "Doktorsun."
Of course, if
we're doing a...
if we're creating a sentence that's using the third person singular like if we want to say "he or she is a doctor"
we don't have an ending
to attach for as a personal suffix. That means that we're going to have to use the personal
pronoun in this case so personal pronoun for "he she or it" in Turkish is "o"
Have to put it
"...doktor."
"He or she is a doctor" that simple. "O doktor."
Now we're going to look at how to do
personal suffixes and the plural so how to say things like "we are" and "you guys are"
Let's start with the first person plural "we"
we have the option of
separate column we have the option of using the
pronoun, "biz": we in front but we don't have to. Then we can write or say
"doktor..."
Turkish word for doctor and
Then we go
choose
one of our
options in the first person plural
According to the rules of four-way vowel harmony. We can have eva's "-iz, -ız, -uz or -üz" because the final vowel in doctors, "o"
we're going to choose "-iz" so "biz doktoruz" or simply "doctoruz": We are doctors
Very similar situation for the second
person plural so with the option of putting "siz": you plural or you formal
and put "doktor"
And attach the second person plural
personal suffix, you have a choice of four
"-siniz, -sınız, -sunuz or -sünüz"
we're going to choose "sunuz" because of our four-way vowel harmony rule
So "Siz doktorsunuz."
Finally if we want to say "they are doctors"
we have the obligation to use the personal pronoun "onlar": they and
Then we have a choice. We can say "onlar..."
..."doktor": they are doctors and leave it at that, that's perfectly grammatically correct or particularly if you want to emphasize the plurality
You can say "they are
doctors" add the Turkish plural suffix. Now remember this the same
Regular plural suffix you use on any noun in Turkish, so it actually follows
two-way, vowel harmony on the rest of these personal suffixes which follow four-way vowel harmony, so
"Onlar doktorlar."
Now, what if the
word you want to add a personal suffix to, the word you want to
make a part of a present tense sentence with the verb "to be" in Turkish ends in a vowel?
You have to do something a little special, but it's not tricky. Let's just take a look
Let's say we want to make a sentence that says "I am a student"
The word for student in Turkish is "öğrenci"
Okay, student. We're saying "I": ben
Optional
am a student
Well, we know we go to our first person singular "I"
endings, our
personal suffixes. I'm going to choose "-im" because of vowel harmony "i" harmonizes with "i"
so "ben öğrenci...im"
Hmm Turkish does not like to have two vowels next to each other, so if you are adding a
personal suffix that begins with a vowel in other words
First person singular or first person plural to a noun or adjective that ends in a vowel
So you've got the two vowels next to each other, you're going to have to insert something to buffer them in this case
you're always going to insert a
"y"
So "Ben öğrenciyim.": I am a student
Let's see it again with the plural "biz": we
are students
"Biz"
optional
"öğrenci..."
With our endings we're going to choose "-iz"
"Biz öğrenci...iz"
Got those two vowels which we don't like in Turkish
so we're going to have to insert a "y"
"Biz öğrenciyiz."
A reminder. Let's say we want to say "you"
singular "are a student"
"Sen" (optional)
"öğrenci..."
"...sin" we don't need to add a "y" because the suffix, the personal suffix
we're attaching to the noun "öğrenci" starts with a consonant. Nice and easy.