hangi 'which' and Selective Determiners | Turkish Grammar

When you want someone to pick one out of several — which book? which bus? — Turkish uses hangi. It is the selective interrogative determiner, and it sits in front of a noun just like English which. The grammar point that matters here is the same one that governs every Turkish noun phrase: hangi itself stays bare, and the case ending goes on the noun. So "Which book do you want?" is Hangi kitabı istiyorsun? — the accusative -ı rides on kitap, not on hangi. The page closes with the small family of selective determiners that pattern the same way: öteki / diğer "the other," başka "another / other," and aynı "the same."

hangi: choose from a known set

hangi means "which," and the defining feature of "which" (as opposed to "what") is that it asks you to select from a set the listener already has in mind. What book? could be any book in the world; which book? assumes there are specific books on the table and you must pick one.

Hangi otobüs merkeze gidiyor?

Which bus goes to the centre? (choosing among the buses present)

Hangi renk daha çok hoşuna gidiyor?

Which colour do you like better?

Hangi film daha iyiydi, sence?

Which film was better, do you think?

For the contrast with ne "what" and the other question words, see question pronouns and the broader wh-questions page. The rest of this page is about how hangi combines with a noun.

hangi stays bare; the noun takes the case

This is the heart of it. Like every Turkish determiner — and like demonstratives and adjectives — hangi does not inflect. It carries no case, no plural, no anything. The grammatical role of the phrase is marked on the noun, at the right edge:

Hangi kitabı istiyorsun?

Which book do you want? (accusative -ı on kitap → kitabı; hangi bare)

Hangi okula gidiyorsun?

Which school do you go to? (dative -a on okul → okula; hangi bare)

Hangi şehirden geliyorsun?

Which city are you from? (ablative -den on şehir → şehirden; hangi bare)

Watch the consonant change in kitap → kitabı: the final p softens to b before the vowel suffix — that is a property of kitap, and it happens because the case ending lands on kitap, confirming that the noun, not hangi, is the one being inflected. English gives you no parallel: which is invariant and the case (if English had one) would show up on the pronoun, never via the noun. In Turkish the noun does all the work.

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hangi is bare; the noun carries the case. "Which book (object)?" = Hangi kitabı? — the -ı is on kitap, never on hangi. If you find yourself wanting to attach an ending to hangi, you've put it on the wrong word.

hangi + a definite object is accusative

A frequent slip is forgetting the accusative on the head noun when "which X" is a definite, picked-out object. Because hangi inherently selects from a known set, its noun is almost always treated as definite — and definite objects in Turkish take the accusative case. So the natural form is Hangi kitabı? (with -ı), not bare Hangi kitap? when it's the object of a verb.

Hangi şarkıyı dinliyorsun?

Which song are you listening to? (accusative -yı on şarkı → şarkıyı)

Hangi arabayı aldınız?

Which car did you buy? (accusative -yı on araba → arabayı)

(In a subject position or after var/yok, the noun stays nominative: Hangi otobüs gidiyor? "Which bus goes?" — no accusative, because it's the subject.)

hangisi: the standalone "which one"

When "which" stands alone — no noun after it — Turkish adds the 3rd-person possessive, giving hangisi "which one." Then, like a pronoun, hangisi itself takes the case:

Hangisini seçtin?

Which one did you choose? (hangisi + accusative -ni)

Bunlardan hangisi senin?

Which of these is yours?

This mirrors the determiner-vs-pronoun split you see with demonstratives: hangi kitabı (determiner — noun inflects) vs. hangisini (pronoun — the word itself inflects).

The selective family: öteki, diğer, başka, aynı

Alongside hangi sits a set of determiners that point to a particular member of a set — the other one, another one, the same one. They all share the determiner behaviour: bare before the noun, case on the noun.

öteki / diğer — "the other" (the remaining one of a known pair or set):

Öteki gün gel, bugün çok meşgulüm.

Come the other day, I'm very busy today.

Diğer kitabı da okudun mu?

Did you read the other book too? (accusative on kitap; diğer bare)

başka — "another / other / a different" (some other one, not from a fixed set). It very often pairs with bir: başka bir şey "something else / another thing."

Başka bir şey ister misin?

Would you like anything else? (başka + bir + şey)

Başka sorusu olan var mı?

Does anyone have another question?

aynı — "the same." It is invariant as a determiner and keeps the case on the noun:

Aynı filmi üç kez izledim.

I watched the same film three times. (accusative on film; aynı bare)

Her gün aynı otobüse biniyorum.

I get on the same bus every day. (dative on otobüs; aynı bare)

These three overlap in ways English blurs — the other, another, a different — and choosing among them takes some practice; the dedicated guide is başka vs. diğer vs. öteki. For grammar, the takeaway is uniform: they are bare determiners, and the noun carries the case.

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The whole selective family — hangi, öteki, diğer, başka, aynı — behaves identically: the determiner is bare, the case (and plural, and possessive) lives on the noun. Learn the rule once and it covers all of them.

Common mistakes

❌ Hangiyi kitap istiyorsun?

Incorrect — hangi is bare; the case goes on the noun: Hangi kitabı?

✅ Hangi kitabı istiyorsun?

Which book do you want?

❌ Hangi kitap okudun?

Incomplete — as a definite object, the noun needs the accusative: Hangi kitabı okudun?

✅ Hangi kitabı okudun?

Which book did you read?

❌ Aynıyı filmi sevdim.

Incorrect — aynı is bare; only the noun inflects: aynı filmi.

✅ Aynı filmi sevdim.

I liked the same film.

❌ Başka şey ister misin?

Unnatural — 'something else' normally takes bir: başka bir şey.

✅ Başka bir şey ister misin?

Would you like something else?

❌ Hangini seçtin?

Incorrect — the standalone 'which one' is hangisi, then it inflects: Hangisini seçtin?

✅ Hangisini seçtin?

Which one did you choose?

The two recurring errors are inflecting hangi itself (it never inflects as a determiner) and forgetting the accusative on the head noun when "which X" is a definite object — Hangi kitap okudun? should be Hangi kitabı okudun?. Both come from English, where "which" carries no ending and the noun shows no case. In Turkish the rule is fixed: hangi bare, noun marked.

Key takeaways

hangi = "which," asking you to select from a known set (vs. ne "what," open-ended).
As a determiner, hangi stays bare; the case ending goes on the noun: Hangi kitabı?, Hangi okula?, Hangi şehirden?.
A definite "which X" object usually takes the accusative on the noun: Hangi şarkıyı dinliyorsun?.
Standing alone, "which one" is hangisi, and then it inflects: Hangisini seçtin?.
The selective family — öteki / diğer "the other," başka "another / other" (often + bir), aynı "the same" — all behave the same: bare determiner, case on the noun.
For choosing among the selectives, see başka vs. diğer vs. öteki.

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