what is it?
Turkish has three demonstratives: bu («this» — near the speaker), şu («that» — pointed at or newly introduced), and o («that» — distant or already known). Each can work as a determiner placed before a noun (bu kitap — «this book»), or as a stand-alone pronoun replacing a noun entirely (bunu — «this one», accusative). A separate set of nouns — burası, şurası, orası — means «this place / that place» and inflects like a regular noun.
when to use it?
bu — use for something physically close to the speaker, or something already in focus in the conversation.
şu — use when pointing at something (with a gesture) or introducing a referent for the first time. It draws the listener's attention to a specific item.
o — use for something distant from both speaker and listener, or for a referent already established and not needing re-introduction. o also serves as the third-person pronoun «he / she / it».
burası / şurası / orası — use when you need a noun meaning «this place», «that place», or «that place over there». These forms take case suffixes and can be the subject or object of a sentence.
formation
As a determiner, the demonstrative never changes — it stays bu / şu / o regardless of the noun's number or case. Plurality is marked on the noun, not on the demonstrative.
| demonstrative + noun | gloss |
|---|---|
| bu kitap | this book |
| bu kitaplar | these books |
| şu çanta | that bag |
| o araba | that car |
As a pronoun, bu / şu / o take case suffixes. Because these stems end in a vowel, a -n- buffer is inserted before any vowel-initial suffix.
| case | bu | şu | o |
|---|---|---|---|
| nominative | bu | şu | o |
| accusative | bunu | şunu | onu |
| dative | buna | şuna | ona |
| locative | bunda | şunda | onda |
| ablative | bundan | şundan | ondan |
The place nouns burası / şurası / orası inflect like ordinary nouns ending in a vowel. The most common forms at A1 are the locative and nominative.
| case | burası | şurası | orası |
|---|---|---|---|
| nominative | burası | şurası | orası |
| locative | burada | şurada | orada |
| ablative | buradan | şuradan | oradan |
| dative | buraya | şuraya | oraya |
Notice that the locative of burası is burada, not burasında. The stem shortens to bura- before case suffixes in everyday speech.
examples in context
common pitfalls
bu ≠ burası for places. To say «this place is far», use the place noun: Burası uzak. Writing *Bu uzak. leaves the sentence without a proper subject noun.
şu is not simply «medial distance». Its primary job is to point or introduce. Do not treat it as a strict middle distance between bu and o; context and gesture matter more than physical distance.
Never pluralise the demonstrative determiner. «These books» is bu kitaplar, not *bunlar kitaplar. As a determiner, bu/şu/o never inflects.
Do not drop the -n- buffer on pronoun forms. The accusative of bu is bunu, not *buyu; the dative is buna, not *bua. The -n- buffer is obligatory whenever a case suffix follows the pronoun stem.
Three sentences, graded here. Nothing is saved and no account is needed.
Kasaya çok uzun bir kuyruk var; ___ gitmek istemiyorum. (orası)
Fill in the blank with the correct form of the word in parentheses.