what is it?
The genitive-possessive construction links two nouns to express ownership, belonging, or association — the equivalent of English X's Y or the Y of X. It requires two simultaneous suffixes: the genitive suffix -(n)In on the possessor (the owner) and the third-person singular possessive suffix -(s)I on the possessed (the thing owned). For example, öğretmenin kitabı means «the teacher's book». Neither suffix can be dropped without producing ungrammatical Turkish.
when to use it
Ownership and possession. Use it whenever one noun owns or possesses another: öğretmenin kitabı (the teacher's book).
Part-whole relationships. Use it when the second noun is a part of the first: evin kapısı (the door of the house).
Proper nouns and place names. Proper nouns take the same suffixes, separated by an apostrophe: Türkiye'nin başkenti (the capital of Turkey).
Existence sentences with var/yok. When a pronoun is the possessor in a var (there is / have) sentence, the possessive on the head noun is obligatory: Onun bir kedisi var. (He/She has a cat.)
formation
The pattern is: POSSESSOR + -(n)In + POSSESSED + -(s)I. Both suffixes follow vowel harmony and each has a buffer consonant that appears only when the stem ends in a vowel.
Genitive suffix -(n)In on the possessor
| possessor stem | ends in | genitive form | meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| öğretmen | consonant | öğretmen-in | of the teacher |
| araba | vowel | araba-nın | of the car |
| ev | consonant | ev-in | of the house |
| oda | vowel | oda-nın | of the room |
| Türkiye | vowel (proper) | Türkiye'nin | of Turkey |
The buffer consonant -n- is inserted between a vowel-final stem and the genitive suffix to avoid a vowel cluster: oda → odanın, not *odaın.
3rd-person singular possessive suffix -(s)I on the possessed
| possessed stem | ends in | possessive form | meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| kitap | consonant | kitab-ı | its/the book |
| kapı | vowel | kapı-sı | its/the door |
| araba | vowel | araba-sı | its/the car |
| ev | consonant | ev-i | its/the house |
| isim | consonant | ismi | its/the name |
The buffer consonant -s- is inserted between a vowel-final stem and the possessive suffix: kapı → kapısı, not *kapıı.
Both suffixes follow four-way vowel harmony: the vowel in the suffix copies the backness and roundedness of the last vowel in the stem. The table below shows the four vowel variants for each suffix.
| last stem vowel | genitive suffix | possessive suffix |
|---|---|---|
| a / ı | -ın / -nın | -ı / -sı |
| e / i | -in / -nin | -i / -si |
| o / u | -un / -nun | -u / -su |
| ö / ü | -ün / -nün | -ü / -sü |
examples in context
common pitfalls
Omitting the genitive on the possessor. Writing *öğretmen kitabı instead of öğretmenin kitabı produces an indefinite compound (a «teacher book» in general) rather than a specific possessive. Both suffixes must be present for a true genitive-possessive link.
Omitting the possessive on the possessed. Writing *öğretmenin kitap is ungrammatical. The third-person singular possessive suffix -(s)I on the head noun is not optional.
Dropping the buffer consonants. When a stem ends in a vowel, a buffer consonant is required to separate the two vowels.
Genitive: oda → odanın, not *odaın; Türkiye → Türkiye'nin, not *Türkiye'in.
Possessive: kapı → kapısı, not *kapıı; araba → arabası, not *arabaı.
Three sentences, graded here. Nothing is saved and no account is needed.
Bu binanın ___ çok büyük. (kapı)
Fill in the blank with the correct form of the word in parentheses.