Lesson 131 © Turkish Tea Time

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Life is Hard Made with love.
We're going back to basics in today's lesson. Life is hard, but the
accusative suffix is not.

The accusative suffix. Beginner

Dialog

1 | Pelin Hayat çok zor. Hayat bir işkence. Hayat. . .

2 | Gökçe Sus! Şimdi ders çalışıyorum. Zor bir soruyu çözüyorum. Sus lütfen!

3 | Pelin Hayat zor! Salak bir matematik matematik sorusunu çözmek kolay. Yaşamak çok çok zor!

4 | Gökçe Manyak mısın? Bir problem var sanırım. Ne oldu? Hadi anlat.

5 | Pelin Sanırım Tamer beni aldatıyor. Dün bir kız gördüm yanında. Kızı tanımıyorum.

6 | Gökçe Tamer seni çok seviyor. Saçmalama! Lütfen sus. Bu soruyu çözmem lazım.

7 | Pelin Hayat çok zor. Çok. . . hayat çok. . .

Dialog Translation

1 | Pelin Life is so hard. Life is torture. Life. . .

2 | Gökçe Quiet! I'm studying right now. I'm solving a tough math problem. Quiet please!

3 | Pelin Life is hard! Solving a stupid math problem is easy. Living is so, so hard!
 4 | Gökçe Are you a maniac? I guess there's a problem. What happened? C'mon, tell me.

5 | Pelin I guess Tamer is cheating on me. Yesterday, I saw a girl with him. I don't know that girl.

6 | Gökçe Tamer loves you a lot. Don't be silly! Please be quiet. I need to solve this problem.

7 | Pelin Life is so hard. So. . . life is so. . .

Language Points

The Accusative Suffix and Direct Objects

The accusative suffix is used to mark specific direct objects in Turkish. So, first of all, what is a direct object?

Given a verb, a direct object answers the question to what is this action happening? For example, take the
sentence She saw the cat. The verb is saw. What did she see? The cat. The cat is the direct object. As another
example, take I love Istanbul. What do I love? Istanbul. Istanbul is the direct object.

In English, we don't do anything special to a word when it's the direct object of a sentence. Turkish, however, adds
a suffix to explicitly specify when a word is a direct object. This suffix is called the accusative and is a single letter: -
i. It follow four-fold vowel harmony, so can also appear as ı, u, and ü. When adding this suffix to a word that ends
in a vowel, you must add a buffer y (with an important exception that we explain below).

Kedi yiyor.
The cat is eating. (no direct object)

Kediyi gördüm.
I saw the cat. (kedi is a direct object)

Kedi balığı yiyor.

The cat is eating the fish. (balık is a direct object)

Balık kediyi yiyor.

The fish is eating the cat. (kedi is a direct object)

Here are some more examples showing off the various vowel harmonies.

Kadını tanıdı.
He met the woman.
 O gülü aldım.
I bought that rose.

Çöpü at.
Throw away the trash.

Topu attınız.
You threw the ball.

The Accusative Suffix Marks Specific Things

Okay, listen up. This is the source of much suffering for beginner Turkish learners, but it doesn't have to be.

The direct object is only half of the accusative story. In fact, the accusative only marks direct objects that are
specific. You can think of nouns as falling into two different categories: definite and indefinite. Indefinite nouns are
things like a cat, some paper, or three jackets - they are referencing categories of things without referring to a
specific instance of that thing. Conversely, a definite noun is one that does refer to a specific thing: the cat, Büşra,
this problem.

The accusative suffix is only used on words that are both a definite noun and a direct object. If the word is not both
of these things, it does not take the accusative.

Bir kedi gördüm.

I saw a cat.

Kediyi gördüm.
I saw the cat.

Birkaç kedi gördüm.

I saw several cats.

Büşra'yı gördüm.
I saw Büşra.

Bu kediyi gördüm.
I saw this cat.

There are some good rules of thumb to help you know when to use the accusative. If the object is modified with bu,
şu, or o, it usually takes the accusative. Names always take the accusative. Objects that take the accusative very
often translate into English the. If the word is possessed by someone, it's usually something specific and takes the
accusative.

The above tips are helpful, but there's no easy shortcut. It really depends on the context. For example, just
because a word is modified by bir doesn't mean it can't take the accusative.

Bir kedi gördüm.

I saw a cat.

Bir kediyi gördüm.

I saw one of the cats. (a specific cat out of a group)

Üç şapka aldım.
I bought three hats.

Üç şapkayı aldım.
I bought three of the hats. (a specific three hats out of a group)

Using Buffer N

When adding the accusative to a word that ends in a vowel, we've already seen that we add a buffer y.

Kediyi gördüm.
I saw the cat.

Şapkayı aldım.
I bought the hat.

There is a very important (and very common) addition to this rule. When adding the accusative to a word that
already has a suffix on it, the buffer letter is n - not y. (The accusative is not unique here - other suffixes such as
the dative, locative, and ablative also follow this rule.)

You see this constantly in two cases. First, when the word taking the accusative is possessed in the third person.

Onun şapkası.
His hat.

Onun şapkasını aldım.

I bought his hat.

Onların şapkalarını aldım.

I bought their hats.

Büşra'nın çantasını beğendim.

I liked Busra's bag.
Second, when the word taking the accusative is a compound noun.

Yüzme havuzu.
Swimming pool.

Yüzme havuzunu gördüm.

I saw the swimming pool.

El çantası.
Hand bag.

El çantasını aldım.
I bought the handbag.

Büşra'nın el çantasını aldım.

I bought Büşra's hand bag.

Vocabulary

yaşamak to live

saçmalama don't talk nonsense

hayat life

işkence torture

soru question

çözmek to solve

salak stupid

manyak maniac

hadi anlat c'mon, tell me

aldatmak to cheat on

Review

1. The accusative suffix is added to nouns that. . .

a. . . . are direct objects.

b. . . . are specific.

c. . . . are specific and direct objects.

d. . . . are indirect objects.

2. When does the accusative force a buffer n instead of buffer y?

a. When it is added to a word that ends in a whispered letter.

b. It depends on the vowel harmony.

c. When it is added to definite nouns.

d. When it is added to a word that already has a suffix on it.

3. Which of the following are properly constructed accusatives? (pick all)

a. köpeki

b. telefonumu

c. gözü

d. elbisesi

e. kızı

f. çantayı
4. Which of the following are correctly using the accusative? (şapka = hat) (pick all)

a. Bu şapkayı kırmızı.

b. Bu şapkayı aldım.

c. Üç şapkayı aldım.

d. Onun şapkanı aldım.

e. Onun şapkayı aldım.

f. Onun şapkasını aldım.

5. Translate: We ate her pizza. (yemek, pizza) (write)

Answer Key

1. c
2. d
3. b c e f
4. b c f
5. Onun pizzasını yedik , Pizzasını yedik

More. . .

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