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Lesson5: Combining Letters (N, S, Þ, Y) - 1

In Turkish, it is an odd situation that two vowels come together in a word. Turks have not

got used to use two vowels one after another: aa, ee, ei, aı etc. We use the combining

letters to make the pronunciation easier. For us, the pronunciation becomes

easier when a consonant is brought between two vowels.

 

We use four letters to tie two vowels: N, S, Ş, Y. We refer to these letters "kaynaştırma

harfleri" in Turkish.

 

LETTERS N S Ş Y                                                                  
USAGE SITUATIONS genitive clause vowel-ended noun + possessive -i distributive adjectives in the situations except these  
  for the positional endings* after the possessive suffix of the 3rd people        
  bu, şu, o        

*positional endings: the suffixes of the accusative, dative, locative, genitive and ablative

cases.

 

S

 

Two things is needed to use "s" as combining letter.

1) A noun that ends with a vowel.

2) The possessive suffix of the 3rd singular and plural.

vowel S  -i which is possesive

 

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Annesi benim ilkokul öğretmenim. (His mother is my teacher of primary school.)

 

ilkokul : primary school

öğretmen : teacher

 

annesi :

e s i

 

It is a noun that ends with a vowel: e. If "s" wasn´t be brought, the word would be

"annei" and this would be so strange for a Turk.

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Arkadaşımın dedesi geçen yıl öldü. (My friend´s grandfather passed away last year.)

 

arkadaş : friend

dede : grandfather

geçen : last

yıl : year

ölmek : to die, to pass away

 

dedesi :

e s i

 

It is a noun that ends with a vowel: e. If "s" wasn´t be brought, the word would be

"dedei" and this would be so strange for a Turk.

 

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Almancası da iyi, bu yüzden sizinle onun gelmesi daha yararlı olur. (He can also speak German well, therefore it is more useful that he comes with you. (purely: His German is good as well,...))

 

Almanca : German language

iyi : good

bu yüzden : therefore

gelmek : to come

yararlı : useful

 

Almancası :

The last letter is a vowel: A. If we don´t bring "s", it becomes "Almancaı" and this is too strange for our ears.

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Japonya´daki tsunaminin videosunu izledik, gerçekten felâketmiş. (We have watched the video of the tsunami that was in Japan, it´s really catastrophe.)

 

yıl : year

tsunami : tsunami

video : video

izlemek : 1to watch, 2to follow

gerçekten : really (purely: from the truth)

felâket : 1misfortune, 2catastrophe

 

videosu :

o s u

 

The last letter is a vowel: O. If you directly write "videou", it´s too unmeaningful and

strange for Turk to hear.

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Elindeki nergisin kokusunu çok sevdim. (I liked the smell of the daffodil that in your

hand very much.)

 

el : hand

nergis : daffodil

koku : smell

sevmek : 1to love, 2to like

 

kokusu :

u s u

The last letter is a vowel : U. As possessive suffix, if you bring just U, it would be

"kokuu" and that is too unmeaningful and strange to hear.

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Şu an içeride halk müziği korosunun konseri var. (Now there is a concert of the folk music chorus inside.)

 

şu an / şu anda : at the moment, now

içeri : inside

halk : people, folk

müzik : music

koro : chorus

var : there is/are.

 

korosu:

o s u

THe last letter is a vowel: O. If you bring the possessive U lonely, the word would take a shape "korou" and this is unacceptable.

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Köşelerdeki otları kesince bahçenin görüntüsü daha güzel oldu. (When we have cut the plants in the corners, the view of the garden became more beautiful.)

 

köşe : corner

ot : plant

kesmek : to cut

bahçe : garden

görüntü : sight, view

güzel : beautiful, nice

olmak : 1to be, 2.............4to become,..............9....

 

görüntüsü:

ü s ü

The last letter is Ü. If you bring the possessive Ü directly, the word would be "görüntüü" and this is unacceptable.

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EXCEPTIONAL SITUATION:

 

ne (what)

ne + i (possessive) --------------------------> nesi (what of him), as alternative : neyi

neyi and nesi are exactly same about the possessional meaning.

 

su (water)

su + u (possessive) --------------------------> suyu (its water)

susu can never be used.

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Ş

 

This letter is just used for the numbers when we use them as distributive adjectives: per, each.

 

If you want to make a number a distributive adjective, you add "-er" to it.

 

her : every

 

bir + er --------------------------------> birer (one per head)

Birer bira içtik. (We drank beer per head. / Each of us drank one glass/bottle/etc. of beer.)

 

bira : beer

içmek : to drink

 

iki + er ---------------------------------> ikişer (two per head) 

Masalarda ikişer kişilik yer var. (There are vacancies for per two people in the tables.)

 

masa : table

kişi : person

yer : 1floor, 2earth, 3vacancy, 4the ideal time

 

"İkier" can´t be used, this is extremely unmeaningful. "Ş" must added between İ and E to make the word "iki (2)" a distributive number.

 

Projeye her liseden yirmi altışar öğrenci katılacak. (Twenty six students from per high school shall join the project.)

 

proje : project

lise : high school

öğrenci : student

katılmak : to join

 

altı. The last letter is a vowel : I. One must pronounce "Ş" before "-ar", otherwise one can´t make this number any distributive adjective.

 

N

 

1) N is usually connected with the positional endings: accusative case, dative case, ablative case, other ones etc.

note: About these cases, I will tell in another lessons. I shan´t go into details about these cases in this lesson.

 

Let´s imagine a word that it has got taken the possessive suffix of 3rd singular or plural.

For example: kol (arm), kol+u(possessive)----->kolu (his/her/its arm)

 

Kolunu kapıya çarptı. (He bumped his arm on the door.)

 

kol : arm

kapı : door

çarpmak : 1to bump, to hit, 2to multiply, 3to steal

 

kol+u(possessive)+u(accusative)

Because there has been a possessive suffix of the 3rd singular, N must be pronounced between two vowels; because the second suffix is a positional ending as well.

 

Geçen yıl arabasını sattı ve şimdi de motorunu satmayı düşünüyor. (Last year he sold his car and he is thinking about selling his motorbike now.)

 

önceki yıl, geçen yıl : last year

araba : car

satmak : to sell

ve : and

şimdi : now

motor, motorsiklet : motorbike

düşünmek : to think

 

araba + ı (possessive)+ ı (accusative)

 

"S" resulted from the fact that "araba" is a noun that ends with a vowel and "I" is a possessive suffix. N resulted from the fact that a positional ending was brought after the suffix I which is possessive.

 

motor + u (possessive) + u (accusative)

 

N resulted from the fact that a positional ending was brought after the suffix U which is possessive.

 

Öğrencilerin yarısının düşük notlar alması okul müdür olarak beni endişlendiriyor. (It is getting the wind up me as a school director, that half of the students got low points.)

 

yarı* : half

düşük : low

not : 1note, 2mark (as a result of an exam)

almak : 1to take, 2to buy, 3to receive, 4to get

endişelendirmek : to put/get the wind up

 

yarı + ı (possessive) + ın (genitive)

 

S hinges on the fact that the noun  that ends with a vowel has taken the possessive suffix of 3rd persoın. I is the possessive of the 3rd person and a positional ending has come after it. N must be pronounced.

 

*the difference of "yarım" and "yarı"

yarım means a half quantity of the "one" thing. and it is used as an adjective.

yarım ekmek (half a bread)

yarım saat (half an hour)

yarım bardak su (half a glass of water)

yarım bırakmak (not to complete (purely: to leave half))

yarım limon (half a lemon)

yarım gün (half a day)

yarım kilometre (half an kilometre)

 

yarı means a half quantity of the many things.

öğrencilerin yarısı (half of the students)

kitapların yarısı (half of the books)

yarımız (half of us) (yarı + mız)

yarı Türk yarı Fransız (half Turk and half French)

yarı Alman yarı Rus (half German and half Russian)

ormanın yarısı (half of the forest)

caddenin yarısı (half of the street)

 

Ofisinden bazen hiç çıkmazdı, sürekli çalışırdı. (He sometimes never used to go out his office and he used to work continuously.)

 

ofis : office

bazen : sometimes

hiç : never

çıkmak : 1to go out, 2to ascend, ........5to flirt, 6to be understood, 7.....

sürekli : continuously

 

ofis + i (possessive) + den (ablative)

 

N must be pronounced between İ and DEN because İ is the possessive suffix ofthe 3rd person and DEN is a positional ending.

 

Evine gitti. (He went his home.) (purely: He went to his home.)

 

ev : house, home

gitmek : to go

 

ev + i (possessive) + e (dative)

 

İçinde bir şey var mı? (Is there anything inside it?) (purely: ... in its interior)

 

iç + i (possessive) + de (locative) -------> içinde (

 

N must be pronounced between İ and E because İ is the possessive suffix of the 3rd person and E is a positional ending.

 

EXCEPTIONAL SITUATIONS:

bu (this)

o (that)

şu (this/that) [nearer than "o", further than "this" ; or about what are going to be explained; or about something that is near, usually well nigh synonym of "bu".]

 

bu + da (locative) ------------> bunda (in/on/at this)

bu + u (accusative) -----------> bunu (this (acc.))

o + u (accusative) ------------> onu (1that (acc.), 2him/her/it (acc.))

o + un (genitive)---------------> onun (of it/him/her/that | his, her, its, of that)

etc.

 

Onu bana verir misin? (Can you give me this?)

Onun rengi ne? (What is its colour?)

Bunun anlamını bilmiyorum. (I don´t know, what does this mean. (purely: I don´t know the meaning of this.)) (bu + un(genitive))

Bundan hiç bahsetmedi. (He has never talked about this.)

Ona çok güzel bir hediye alacağım. (I shall buy a very nice gift for him.) (purely: ...to him)

 

I shall tell about Y in the next lesson by explaining the positional endings.


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