whats the difference between "biri" and "birisi"

please supply examples with ur replies..

şimdiden çok sağol...

my dad said sth. about one being more specific than the other.. is that so??

like lets say there were 2 guys in a room.. we know that one of them has commited a murder.. so can we say
"biri yapmıştı" or "birisi yapmıştı"

i know that one of them can be used, in this example, if we know that one of a few people has committed the murder.. and one can be used if we dont know who did it at all...

or did my dad just make that up to confuse me?? is there really no difference??

I think BIRISI is more specific, because the -I suffix (with the fusion-consontant S) indicates that the talkers both know what they are talking about.

Such as..

What are you eating?

= Elmasi, the APPLE, remember?!The apple that you just gave me?!

= Elma, just an apple, a random apple, not known to the 'asker of the question'. Not mentioned before.


I'm not sure if this is correct tho???

i think ur right...thanks...
what do the rest of u think??

Both of them are very smillar. Sometimes I use one of them and than I think the other fits better and change it.

The main difference is that while in "birisi" it is more likely to be a person, in "biri" it can be also an object. While some people might use "birisi" for objects, I think I wouldnt.

My translation would be as follows:

birisi: a person, somebody
biri: one of them, someone

Both of them could be used for people. Birisi sounds more formal to me and biri more informal.

I think biri has a wider usage and in some cases birisi shouldnt be used at all. For instance:

Biri gitti biri kaldı.
One done, one to go.

Aptalın biri geldi.
Akıllının biri bunu yapmış.

u are so great... i promise that i will read all of these posts over and over again until its stuck in my head...
thanks so much again for helping me learn this language.. u have no idea how much i appreciate ur help...

I want to add a few things about them.

Birisi doesn't take -ler suffix but biri does.

Birisileri (incorrect)
Birileri (correct) evime girmiş !

For 2-3-4.....

Sahadaki futbolculardan ikisi (not iki/not ikiyi) 1.90cm, üçü (not üçüsü) 1.80cm, dördü (not dördüsü) de 1.70cm.'den uzundu.

iki-si or iki tanesi
üç-ü or üç tanesi
dörd-ü or dört tanesi
beş-i or ...
altı-sı
yedi-si
sekiz-i
dokuz-u
on-u
onbir-i
onbirisi (incorrect)
oniki-si
onüç-ü
.
.
.
yirmi-si
otuz-u
kırk-ı
elli-si
altmış-ı
yetmiş-i
seksen-i
doksan-ı
yüz-ü

if the words end with ı/i letter, they take -sı/-si suffix.


Be careful;

%1 yüzde biri (not yüzde birisi)