English splits the world of pointing into two words — this and that — but Turkish splits it into three: bu, şu, and o. The middle term, şu, is the one with no English equivalent, and it is the reason this page exists. Once you see what şu is actually doing, the whole system snaps into place: it is not about three distances so much as about where the attention is.
The one-sentence test
Ask: Is it near me? Is the listener already looking at it / does it already exist in the conversation? Or am I pointing it out / introducing it right now?
| Word | Use it when… | Rough English |
|---|---|---|
| bu | The thing is near you (the speaker), or you just mentioned it | this |
| şu | You are pointing it out / introducing it now — it is not yet in the listener's attention | that (no real equivalent) |
| o | The thing is far, or already known / already established between you | that / it |
The trap is that English speakers map this → bu and that → o, then never reach for şu at all. That is the single most common demonstrative mistake learners make. şu is not a fancier o — it does a different job.
bu — near the speaker
Use bu for what is physically close to you, in your hand, on your side of the table — or for something you yourself just said.
Bu çanta senin mi?
Is this bag yours? (the one right here by me)
Bu kahveyi ben yapmadım, çok güzel olmuş.
I didn't make this coffee — it turned out really good.
Bu konuyu daha sonra konuşalım.
Let's talk about this topic later. (the one we're on now)
That last example shows bu for a discourse referent — the topic currently active in the conversation. Think of bu as "in my zone," whether the zone is physical or conversational.
şu — pointing it out now, or about to mention it
şu is the demonstrative you reach for the moment you draw someone's attention to something they were not yet attending to. The classic sentence is Şuna bak — "Look at that (over there)." You say it because the listener is not yet looking; şu is the verbal equivalent of an extended finger.
Şuna bak, gökyüzü kıpkırmızı olmuş!
Look at that — the sky has turned bright red!
Şu adamı tanıyor musun? Bize doğru bakıyor.
Do you know that man? He's looking our way.
Notice you would not use o adamı here on first mention — o would imply the man is already someone you both have in mind. şu introduces him.
The second, subtler use is şu meaning "the following," pointing forward to something you are about to say. Here şu does not point in space at all — it points ahead in the sentence.
Sana şunu söylemek istiyorum: bu işi birlikte halledeceğiz.
I want to tell you this: we'll sort this job out together.
Sorun şu — kimse bana haber vermedi.
The problem is this: nobody let me know.
In both, şu / şunu sets up a colon and announces "here it comes." English would say "this," but Turkish will not let you use bu there, because the thing has not been introduced yet — and bu is for what is already in your zone. This forward-pointing şu is a genuine feature of careful, natural Turkish.
o — far away, or already known
o covers two situations English keeps separate. First, the plain far "that": something across the room, down the street, out of your zone entirely.
O dağın arkasında küçük bir köy var.
There's a small village behind that mountain.
Second — and this is where o quietly does double duty — it is the demonstrative for things already established between the speakers, regardless of distance. It is also the third-person pronoun "he/she/it." So o is what you use to refer back to something already on the table.
Dün bir film izledim. O film beni çok etkiledi.
I watched a film yesterday. That film really moved me.
— Anahtarları gördün mü? — Onları masaya bıraktım.
— Have you seen the keys? — I left them on the table.
In the second exchange, the keys are already the topic, so onları ("them," the accusative of o) is natural. Reaching for bu or şu there would feel like you were re-introducing keys that are already under discussion.
The three-way contrast on one object
Put the same noun through all three to feel the system as a whole. Imagine three cars.
Bu araba benim — şu araba komşunun, o araba ise kimsenin değil.
This car is mine, that car (the one I'm pointing at) is the neighbor's, and that car over there is nobody's.
- bu araba — the one right by you.
- şu araba — the one you are now singling out with a gesture, bringing into the listener's attention.
- o araba — the far one, or the one already understood from context.
This is the contrast English simply cannot reproduce, because English collapses şu and o into a single "that."
Demonstratives take case endings
bu, şu, and o are not frozen words — when they stand alone as pronouns, they decline like nouns, and the o series uses an extra -n- buffer. You will meet these constantly, so internalize the pattern (see pronouns/demonstrative-cases for the full table).
| Case | bu | şu | o |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plain | bu | şu | o |
| Accusative | bunu | şunu | onu |
| Dative (to) | buna | şuna | ona |
| Locative (at) | bunda | şunda | onda |
| Ablative (from) | bundan | şundan | ondan |
| Genitive (of) | bunun | şunun | onun |
Şundan bir tane daha alır mısın?
Could you grab one more of that (the thing I'm indicating)?
When the demonstrative sits in front of a noun as a determiner — bu çanta, şu adam, o film — it stays uninflected and the noun carries the case. That distinction (determiner vs standalone pronoun) is covered in determiners/demonstratives-as-determiners.
Common mistakes
❌ O kuşa bak, ne kadar güzel!
Incorrect — you're pointing a bird out NOW, so şu, not o
✅ Şu kuşa bak, ne kadar güzel!
Look at that bird, how beautiful it is!
❌ Sana bunu söyleyeceğim: yarın gelmeyeceğim.
Incorrect — the thing hasn't been said yet, so şu points forward, not bu
✅ Sana şunu söyleyeceğim: yarın gelmeyeceğim.
I'll tell you this: I'm not coming tomorrow.
❌ Bu araba çok uzakta, göremiyorum.
Incorrect — something far away is o, not bu
✅ O araba çok uzakta, göremiyorum.
That car is very far away, I can't see it.
❌ Anahtarları gördün mü? Bunları nereye koydun?
Incorrect — the keys are already the topic, so use the known-referent o
✅ Anahtarları gördün mü? Onları nereye koydun?
Have you seen the keys? Where did you put them?
The thread running through all four errors is the same: English-speaking learners over-rely on the bu/o pair and never deploy şu, or they reach for bu where the referent is not actually in their zone yet.
Key takeaways
- Turkish has three demonstratives where English has two; şu is the extra one and the one learners skip.
- bu = near you or just-mentioned ("in my zone"). o = far away, or already-known/established. şu = you are pointing it out / introducing it right now, or pointing forward to what you are about to say.
- Şuna bak ("Look at that") and şunu söyleyeyim ("let me tell you this") are the model sentences — memorize them as the signature uses of şu.
- Standalone, all three decline with an -n- buffer (bunu, şuna, ondan); in front of a noun they stay bare and the noun takes the case.
Now practice Turkish
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Start learning Turkish→Related Topics
- Demonstratives: bu, şu, oA1 — Turkish has a three-way demonstrative system — bu (this, near), şu (the attention-directing one), o (that, far/known) — used as both determiners and pronouns.
- bu / şu / o as DeterminersA1 — When bu, şu, and o sit in front of a noun they stay bare — no pronominal n, no case ending — because the case lives on the noun (bu evde, not bunda evde).
- Demonstratives in the CasesA2 — The full case paradigm of bu, şu, o as pronouns — every form inserts the pronominal n, giving the oblique stems bun-, şun-, on- (bunu, buna, bunda, bundan, bunun).
- Topic and FocusB1 — Turkish marks what a sentence is about (topic, at the front) and what is new or contrastive (focus, before the verb) by position plus particles like de/da and ise — where English uses intonation and clefts.