The genitive is the possessor case — the ending you put on the owner in an "X's Y" relationship. In English, the apostrophe-s does the whole job with one mark: Ali's house. Turkish splits the work across two words. The genitive marks the owner (Ali'nin), and a matching possessive suffix marks the thing owned (evi). Together they form the izafet, Turkish's possessive construction, taught in full at definite izafet. This page is about the genitive ending itself — its form, and the crucial fact that it almost never travels alone.
The form: -(n)In
The genitive is a four-way vowel-harmony suffix, written -(n)In. The vowel is a high vowel — i, ı, u, or ü — chosen by both the frontness and the rounding of the last stem vowel. The n in parentheses is a buffer consonant that appears only after a vowel stem.
| Last vowel of stem | Suffix vowel | Consonant stem | Vowel stem (+ n) |
|---|---|---|---|
| e, i | i | ev → evin | kedi → kedinin |
| a, ı | ı | kız → kızın | kapı → kapının |
| o, u | u | okul → okulun | kutu → kutunun |
| ö, ü | ü | göl → gölün | ütü → ütünün |
So the four surface forms are -in, -ın, -un, -ün after a consonant, and -nin, -nın, -nun, -nün after a vowel. Note that a vowel stem gets a doubled-up look — kapı → kapının — because the buffer n sits between the stem and the harmonising vowel.
Evin kapısı sabaha kadar açık kalmış.
The door of the house stayed open until morning.
Kedinin tüyleri her yere bulaşıyor.
The cat's fur gets everywhere.
The genitive never works alone: it triggers a possessive
This is the single most important point, and the one that trips up every English speaker. In English, only the owner is marked: Ali's house — house is untouched. In Turkish, marking the owner is only half the job. The thing owned must wear a 3rd-person possessive suffix that agrees with the owner. So "Ali's house" is a two-suffix construction:
Ali'nin (genitive — the owner) ev-i (possessive — the owned thing) = Ali'nin evi.
Drop either half and the phrase breaks. Ali'nin ev (no possessive) and Ali ev-i (no genitive) are both wrong. The two endings are a matched pair, like an opening and closing bracket.
Ayşe'nin kitabı çantamda kaldı, yarın veririm.
Ayşe's book ended up in my bag, I'll give it back tomorrow.
Komşunun köpeği bütün gece havladı.
The neighbour's dog barked all night.
Bu şehrin trafiği insanı çıldırtıyor.
This city's traffic drives you crazy.
In each one, look at both nouns: Ayşe'*nin kitabı*, komşu*nun köpeği*, şehr*in trafiği*. The owner takes the genitive; the owned thing takes the matching possessive. The possessive on the head noun is the buffer-n-bearing form when a further case follows — komşunun köpeğini gördüm "I saw the neighbour's dog" — which is why the pronominal n matters here.
Stacking: "my friend's car" is two suffixes deep
Because the owner can itself be possessed, izafet phrases stack into satisfyingly long words that are completely regular once you parse them slot by slot. Take "my friend's car":
- arkadaş "friend" → arkadaş-ım "my friend" (1st-person possessive)
- → arkadaş-ım-ın "my friend's" (now add the genitive)
- pair it with araba "car" → araba-s-ı "[his/her] car" (3rd-person possessive)
- result: arkadaşımın arabası.
Arkadaşımın arabası yine bozuldu, servise götürdü.
My friend's car broke down again, she took it to the service.
Müdürün toplantısı yarıma ertelendi.
The manager's meeting was pushed to half past.
English handles the same idea with a single 's and no change to "car." Turkish makes both the layering of possession (my friend → my friend's) and the agreement on the head noun (car → his/her car) visible in the morphology. It looks heavier, but it is fully predictable — there are no irregular genitive paradigms to memorise (with one famous exception below).
The personal-pronoun genitives
The genitives of the personal pronouns are slightly irregular and must be learned as a set, because they are the words for my, your, his/its, our, their when used as standalone possessors. See personal genitive pronouns for their full use.
| Pronoun | Genitive | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| ben | benim | my / mine |
| sen | senin | your / yours |
| o | onun | his / her / its |
| biz | bizim | our / ours |
| siz | sizin | your / yours (pl) |
| onlar | onların | their / theirs |
Note benim and bizim keep an m, not the expected -in/-ün — these two are the irregulars. The owned noun still takes its possessive: benim evim "my house," senin araban "your car," onun kitabı "his book."
Bu senin kalemin mi, yoksa benim kalemim mi?
Is this your pen or my pen?
Onların evi denize çok yakınmış.
Their house is apparently very close to the sea.
The one irregular noun: su → suyun
Turkish nouns have no irregular genitive forms — with a single famous exception. The word su "water" takes the buffer y instead of the expected n, giving suyun "of the water," not sunun. (The same y shows up in its possessive: suyu "its water," not susu.) This is essentially the only irregular genitive in the language, and it is worth memorising precisely because it is the exception that proves how regular everything else is.
Bu kaynak suyunun tadı çok farklı.
This spring water's taste is very different. (suyun — irregular y-buffer)
Common mistakes
❌ Ali'nin ev çok büyük.
Incorrect — the owned noun needs the matching possessive: Ali'nin evi.
✅ Ali'nin evi çok büyük.
Ali's house is very big.
❌ Ayşe kitabı masada.
Incorrect — the owner needs the genitive too: Ayşe'nin kitabı.
✅ Ayşe'nin kitabı masada.
Ayşe's book is on the table.
❌ Kapı kolu kırıldı, içeri giremedik.
Wrong for 'the door's handle' — kapı kolu is an indefinite compound ('a door handle, a type of part'); the specific 'the door's handle' needs the genitive.
✅ Kapının kolu kırıldı, içeri giremedik.
The door's handle broke, we couldn't get in.
❌ Bu sunun tadı çok farklı.
Incorrect — su is irregular: its genitive is suyun with a y-buffer, never sunun.
✅ Bu suyun tadı çok farklı.
This water's taste is very different.
The number-one error is marking only one side — usually the owner — and leaving the head noun bare (Ali'nin ev). Whenever you write a genitive, immediately ask: "where is the possessive on the thing owned?" The second error is dropping the genitive on the owner and producing an indefinite compound by accident: kapı kolu means "a door handle" (a type of thing), while kapının kolu means "the door's handle" (a specific one). The difference is exactly the genitive — see izafet.
Key takeaways
- The genitive -(n)In is a four-way high-vowel suffix (-in, -ın, -un, -ün) with buffer n after a vowel: evin, kızın, okulun, kapının.
- It marks the possessor, and it almost never stands alone: it triggers a matching possessive suffix on the possessed noun (Ali'nin evi).
- "My friend's car" is two suffixes deep: arkadaşımın arabası — owner-genitive + owned-possessive.
- Pronoun genitives are a memorised set: benim, senin, onun, bizim, sizin, onların (note the irregular m in benim, bizim).
- The lone irregular noun is su → suyun (with y, not n). Everything else is fully regular.
- Marking only one side is the classic error; the genitive and the possessive are a matched pair. See izafet.
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- Definite Izafet: Ali'nin EviA2 — The definite izafet builds 'X's Y' with two markers at once — genitive on the owner, 3rd-person possessive on the owned — and both ends must agree or the phrase breaks.
- 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.
- Buffer Consonants y, n and sA2 — The three epenthetic consonants that break up illegal vowel sequences when a vowel-initial suffix meets a vowel-final stem.
- Possessive Pronouns: benim, senin, onunA2 — The genitive personal pronouns benim, senin, onun, bizim, sizin, onların act as possessors — but the possessive suffix on the noun does the real work, so the pronoun is usually optional emphasis.