After "hello" comes "I'm…". Introducing yourself in Turkish is short and friendly, but it's built on a structure that trips up English speakers right away: there is no verb "to be called." Where English says "my name is X" with a verb, Turkish literally says "my-name X" — a noun, a possessive ending, and nothing else. On top of that, the "pleased to meet you" exchange is a fixed formula with a fixed reply that you simply memorise. Get these two patterns and you can introduce yourself smoothly from day one.
"My name is…": Adım / Benim adım
The core sentence is Adım Ali — "My name is Ali." Break it down: ad means "name," and the suffix -ım is the first-person possessive, "my." So ad-ım = "my name." Then comes the name itself, Ali, with no verb at all between them. This is a zero-copula nominal sentence: "my-name Ali," and that is the whole sentence. There's nothing equivalent to "is" because Turkish doesn't need a verb to link a subject to a noun in the present. (See the zero copula for why "is" is silent.)
Adım Ayşe.
My name is Ayşe. (literally: my-name Ayşe)
Benim adım Mehmet, memnun oldum.
My name is Mehmet, pleased to meet you.
You can optionally front the pronoun benim ("my / of me") for emphasis or clarity: Benim adım Mehmet. It's the genitive "my," doubling the possession already marked on adım — fully natural and a touch more emphatic, like "my name is…". Both Adım Mehmet and Benim adım Mehmet are correct; the bare Adım… is the everyday default.
ad vs isim
There are two words for "name": the native ad and the (Arabic-origin) isim, and they're interchangeable here. The possessive forms are adım ("my name") and ismim ("my name") — note that isim drops its second vowel when a suffix is added: isim → ism-im, not isim-im. This vowel-dropping is irregular and worth memorising. For the full possessive paradigm, see possessive suffixes.
İsmim Zeynep, tanıştığımıza memnun oldum.
My name is Zeynep, pleased to meet you.
Adım da senin adın da çok güzel.
Both my name and your name are lovely. (adım = my name, adın = your name)
You can also introduce yourself with just ben + name — even simpler: Ben Ali. ("I'm Ali."), again a zero-copula nominal sentence ("I Ali"). This is the most casual and common opener of all.
Merhaba, ben Ali.
Hello, I'm Ali.
Asking someone's name
To ask, you put the possessive on the other person and add the question word ne ("what"): Adınız ne? ("what's your name?", polite siz form) or Adın ne? (informal sen). Literally: "your-name what?" — again no verb. The same with isim: İsminiz ne? / İsmin ne?
Adınız ne, tanışabilir miyiz?
What's your name? May we get acquainted? (polite)
Senin adın ne?
What's your name? (informal, emphatic 'senin')
Note the possessive matches who you're asking about: ad-ınız "your (polite) name," ad-ın "your (informal) name." The reply, of course, is Adım … with your possessive. The siz / sen choice here is the usual politeness decision — covered at sen vs siz via the greetings page.
"Pleased to meet you": Memnun oldum
The fixed first-meeting formula is Memnun oldum — "Pleased to meet you" (literally "I became pleased / glad"). It's said when you're introduced or shake hands. The expected reply is equally fixed: Ben de memnun oldum — "Pleased to meet you too" (literally "I too became pleased"), often shortened in speech to just Ben de ("Me too"). Learn the pair as a unit: one person says Memnun oldum, the other answers Ben de memnun oldum.
Memnun oldum.
Pleased to meet you.
Ben de memnun oldum.
Pleased to meet you too.
A slightly fuller, warmer version is Tanıştığımıza memnun oldum — "Pleased to have met / to have made your acquaintance" (literally "pleased at our having met"). It's a touch more formal and gracious, good for a first business introduction.
Tanıştığımıza memnun oldum, umarım yine görüşürüz.
Pleased to have met you — I hope we meet again.
A complete introduction
Here's the whole exchange — greeting, name, and the meeting formula — as it really runs when two people are introduced:
— Merhaba, ben Ali.
— Hello, I'm Ali.
— Memnun oldum, benim adım Selin.
— Pleased to meet you, my name is Selin.
— Ben de memnun oldum.
— Pleased to meet you too.
That three-line unit — ben + name → Memnun oldum + name → Ben de — is the backbone of every first meeting. Around it you can add where you're from (Ben İzmirliyim "I'm from İzmir"), what you do, and so on; for that wider set of personal-info phrases, see personal info, and for the greeting that opens the whole thing, greetings.
Common mistakes
❌ Benim isim Ali.
Vowel not dropped — isim loses its second vowel before a suffix, so 'my name' is ismim, not isim(im).
✅ Benim ismim Ali.
My name is Ali.
İsim drops its second vowel before a possessive: isim → ismim. (The native word ad doesn't change: adım.)
❌ Adım Ali'dir. (in casual self-introduction)
Over-formal — adding -dır makes it a stiff written assertion; in spoken introductions the bare zero-copula 'Adım Ali' is the natural form.
✅ Adım Ali.
My name is Ali.
Don't tack -dır onto a spoken self-introduction; the plain Adım Ali (no copula) is correct and natural.
❌ Ad Ali.
Missing possessive — without the -ım suffix it just says the bare noun 'name'; you need 'adım' (my name).
✅ Adım Ali.
My name is Ali.
The possessive -Im ("my") is what makes it "my name" — don't drop it.
❌ Memnun oldun.
Wrong person — 'oldun' is 'you became'; the fixed formula is first person: Memnun oldum ('I became pleased').
✅ Memnun oldum.
Pleased to meet you.
The formula is first person: ol-dum "I became (pleased)," not oldun "you became."
❌ Adın ne?
Too informal for your new boss — to someone you should respect, use the polite siz form: Adınız ne?
✅ Adınız ne?
What's your name? (polite)
Match the politeness: Adınız ne? (polite) vs Adın ne? (informal). See sen vs siz.
Key takeaways
- "My name is X" = Adım X / Benim adım X — a possessive (ad-ım "my name") plus the name, with no verb and no "is."
- ad and isim both mean "name"; the possessives are adım and ismim (isim drops its second vowel).
- The simplest opener is Ben + name (Ben Ali "I'm Ali").
- Ask with Adınız ne? (polite) / Adın ne? (informal) — "your-name what?", again verbless.
- The meeting formula is the fixed pair Memnun oldum → Ben de memnun oldum; learn them together, don't translate word for word.
Now practice Turkish
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Start learning Turkish→Related Topics
- Greetings and Leave-TakingA1 — The everyday Turkish greetings and farewells — Merhaba, Selam, Günaydın, İyi günler — and the asymmetric parting where the one leaving says Hoşça kal and the one staying replies Güle güle.
- Possessive Suffixes -Im, -In, -(s)I…A1 — The six possessive suffixes that mark the owner's person directly on the owned noun — evim, evin, evi, evimiz, eviniz, evleri — so 'my' needs no separate word.
- Talking About YourselfA2 — How to state your nationality, profession, age, languages, and family in Turkish using zero-copula nominal sentences.
- Present Copula: Zero and Personal EndingsA1 — The present 'to be' is a set of person endings glued onto the predicate — doktorum 'I am a doctor', doktorsun 'you are' — with no ending at all in the third-person singular: Bu ev güzel.