I know that "sehir" means "city" and "ülke" means "country". But I saw this form to fill out, and there it said "sehiriniz" and "ülkeniz". Why is that?
"Ad" stays "ad" and "soyadi" doesn't change either, but "E-posta" becomes "E-postaniz"? I really don't see the logic in this.... :-S

hi Elisa:

sehiriniz (sehir-iniz) = your city
(ülke-niz) = your country

-(i)niz is the possessive sufixe meaning "your" (2nd pers pl)

so the same goes for: eposta-niz

Tesekkürler Sertab!

In fact I thought that might be the answer. Until I saw that "ad" for example doesn't get a suffix. So I started wondering why they ask for "your country", but not for "your name" or "your tel. no."? It just said "Ad" and "Telefon nosu", without the -iniz suffix...

I forgot to post the URL where you can find the form I'm talking about: http://www.freewebs.com/turkce/lesson2.html

One quick comment on this.. The example that you gave actually is not a good one in terms of reflecting the language's grammar. It's is not consistent in itself. For some of the fields, 2nd person in plural is used to be formal, e.g. şehriniz. However, some other fields, for instance ad, is used without any suffix. If they want to be formal, then they should have also written adınız rather than ad. Therefore, this example is incosistent in itself. On the other hand, in practicve, you can come accross with similra forms frequently in Turkey, because not so many people care about this. To sum up, this is a matter of formal writing. 2nd plural proverb, you, is used in Turkish to speak or write formally.
You can see another message in forums about being formal in Turkish by clicking on the following link and scrolling down to the message dated Nov.28, 2004.
Hope this clarifies the confusion.

Turkish Class Forums / Language / help

Tesekkür ederim Ali!

Merhaba. Why is does the Turkish word for thank you (Tesekkurler) end in a 3rd person plural ending (-ler) instead of a second person ending (-sen, -siniz)?

There is a mismatching here. -ler can be used as 3rd person plural suffix by addig it to the end of a verb, and it can also be used to make a noun plural. Actually, here, the suffix (-ler) in "teşekkürler" does not point to the 3rd person plural ending, whereas it just makes the noun "teşekkür" plural, like thanks in English. The person suffixes are added to the verbs, but "teşekkür" is not a verb, it is in noun form. To use in verb form you neen to use it together with the verb "etmek", i.e, "teşekkür etmek" (= to thank).
So, "teşekkür ederim" = Thank you.
and "teşekkürler" = Thanks.

Hope this helps.

Ohhhhhhhhh I get it now.
Thanks alot!!!

also most Turkish greetings are in the plural to be more respectful ..

iyi akşam(lar)
merhaba(lar)
iyi gece(ler)

and so on. I think it is one of the things that makes the language so wonderful

iyi gün(ler) ..