what is it?
Turkish has six personal pronouns: ben (I), sen (you, singular), o (he/she/it), biz (we), siz (you, plural or formal), and onlar (they). Like nouns, pronouns take case suffixes to mark their grammatical role — subject, object, recipient, possessor, location, or source. Several pronouns have irregular case forms that must be memorised: the dative of ben and sen is bana / sana (not *bene / *sene), the first-person genitive is benim / bizim (not *benin / *bizin), and the third-person pronoun o inserts a buffer consonant -n- before every case suffix (onu, ona, onun, onda, ondan).
when to use it
Subject (nominative) — use the bare pronoun when it is the doer of the action. Because Turkish verbs already encode person, the subject pronoun is often omitted; include it for emphasis or clarity.
Direct object (accusative) — use the accusative form when the pronoun is a specific, definite object of a verb.
Recipient (dative) — use the dative form to mark the indirect object ("to/for whom") or direction toward a person.
Possessor (genitive) — use the genitive form to show ownership or association.
Location (locative) — use the locative form to indicate that something is at or on the pronoun's referent (rare with personal pronouns, but grammatically possible).
Source (ablative) — use the ablative form to indicate movement or origin away from the pronoun's referent.
formation
The table below shows all six pronouns across the six cases. Irregular forms are marked with bold. For o, note that the buffer consonant -n- appears in every oblique form. Vowel harmony applies to all regular suffixes throughout.
| case | ben (I) | sen (you sg.) | o (he/she/it) | biz (we) | siz (you pl./formal) | onlar (they) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nominative (subject) | ben | sen | o | biz | siz | onlar |
| accusative (object) | beni | seni | onu | bizi | sizi | onları |
| dative (to/for) | bana | sana | ona | bize | size | onlara |
| genitive (of/possessor) | benim | senin | onun | bizim | sizin | onların |
| locative (at/in) | bende | sende | onda | bizde | sizde | onlarda |
| ablative (from) | benden | senden | ondan | bizden | sizden | onlardan |
Three irregularities to memorise: (1) Dative bana and sana — the vowel changes from e to a. (2) Genitive benim and bizim — the suffix is -im, not the regular -in. (3) Third-person o always inserts -n- before any case suffix.
examples in context
common pitfalls
Using an oblique form as the subject. The subject is always the bare nominative form. Write Ben öğrenciyim, not *Beni öğrenciyim or *Bana öğrenciyim.
Forgetting the -n- buffer in third-person forms. Every oblique form of o requires the buffer: onu, ona, onun, onda, ondan. Forms like *ou or *oa do not exist in Turkish.
Regularising the dative of ben and sen. Learners often apply the regular dative suffix -e and write *bene or *sene. The correct forms are bana and sana — the vowel shifts to a.
Applying the regular genitive -in to first-person pronouns. The genitive of ben is benim and of biz is bizim. Writing *benin or *bizin is incorrect; the suffix here is -im, not -in.
Three sentences, graded here. Nothing is saved and no account is needed.
Pasaportunun fotoğrafı ___ var mı? (sen)
Fill in the blank with the correct case form of the pronoun in parentheses.