Hi all

When do I use the... im, sin iz ,siniz... or um, sün , üz , sünüz

also what is difference between Şu bir kitap and O bir kitap (that is a book)

also Şunlar kitaplar and onlar kitaplar ( these are books)..

Thanks Mike 

 my try

Hi Mike, You obviously were looking at this lesson here.

There´s a lesson on vowel harmony that explains which of the four (i,ı,ü,u) vowels to use in the pronoun suffixes. Click here

Basically the vowels in the suffix match (harmonise) with the final vowel used in the word you will add the suffix to. 

For a word that has a final vowel of a or ı use ´ı´ in the suffix

eg nouns - arkadaş (friend) arkadaşım (my friend)

adjectives - Avustralyalı (Australian) Avustralyalıyım (I am Australian) 

For a word that has a final vowel of e or i use ´i´ in the suffix

eg İngiliz (English - nationality) İngiliziz (we are English)

adjective - güzel (beautiful, lovely) güzelsin (you are beautiful)

For a word that has a final vowel of o or u use ´u´ in the suffix

For a word that has a final vowel of ö or ü use ´ü´ in the suffix

For your second question, the difference between bu, şu and o (this, that and that) comes down to distance.  Something you are holding or can easily touch is always bu, something that is close, like a few steps away or in the same room is generally şu, and something much further away, like a tree or mountains near the horizon, then you use o. In the case of the book sentences, şu would be used for a book on a table closeby, and o would be used for a book you might point to on a garden table outside.

For your third question, it comes down to the distance again. Bunlar (these) and şunlar/onlar (those) are distinguished by their distance from the person speaking. If there were two book displays in a large shop you would use şunlar for the closer books, and onlar for those books further away.

Hope this helps 

Much better and more correct expalnation than mine,thanks Henry

Thanks for help.

I thought it was the vowel harmony thingy but I did have a word in the one´s I was looking at that didn´t follow the harmony rule. I probably wrote it down wrongly.

Thanks on the distance replies it makes much more sense.

Mike

 No don`t worry there are many exceptions to the rules with turkish:

If you are interested, here are a few exceptions I have seen that don´t follow the rules. I´m sure they are all borrowed words (probably of Arabic origin).

kalp (heart) kalbim (my heart)

saat (clock, watch, hour) saatler (clocks) saatim (my watch)

meşgul (busy) meşgulüm (I am busy)

kabahat* (mistake) kabahatim (my mistake)

(* not commonly used, yanlış or hata are used more)

kanaat** (opinion) kanaatim (my opinion)

(** not commonly used, fikir or düşünce are more common)

hal*** (situation, circumstance) halim (my situation)

(***durum is also commonly used for situation, on Turkish TV you will see "Hava Durumu" for the Weather Report (weather conditions)