Demonstratives in the Cases | Turkish Grammar

Once you know the three demonstratives bu, şu, o as pronouns, you need to put them into the cases — to say "I bought this," "look at that," "after that." The good news: there is one rule, and it is completely regular. Every case form inserts a pronominal n between the stem and the ending, so the oblique stems are effectively bun-, şun-, on-. Memorise the table once and the whole paradigm follows.

Case	Ending	bu (this)	şu (that)	o (that / it)
Nominative	—	bu	şu	o
Accusative	-(n)U	bunu	şunu	onu
Dative	-(n)A	buna	şuna	ona
Locative	-(n)DA	bunda	şunda	onda
Ablative	-(n)DAn	bundan	şundan	ondan
Genitive	-(n)In	bunun	şunun	onun

Read down any column and the pattern jumps out: bun- + the case vowel. The stem bu becomes bun-, şu becomes şun-, o becomes on-. From there it is ordinary case marking with vowel harmony.

The pronominal n is the whole story

The n is not a buffer in the usual sense — it is a remnant n that the demonstrative pronouns (and the personal pronoun o) carry whenever they inflect. Unlike the buffer y that appears only to break up vowel clashes, this n is obligatory in every oblique case, even before a consonant-initial ending like the locative -da or ablative -dan. That is why it is bunda, not buda, and bundan, not budan.

Bunu sana özellikle aldım, umarım beğenirsin.

I bought this specially for you, I hope you like it.

Şuna bir bak, sence de garip değil mi?

Take a look at this — don't you think it's strange too?

Ondan sonra bir daha hiç görüşmedik.

After that we never saw each other again.

💡

The oblique stem of bu/şu/o is bun-/şun-/on-. Build any case form in two steps: (1) add n to the stem, (2) attach the harmonising case ending. bun + a → buna; on + dan → ondan. It never fails.

Case by case, with natural use

Accusative — bunu, şunu, onu ("this/that" as a definite object).

Bunu nereye koyayım?

Where should I put this?

Onu çoktan unuttum, boş ver.

I forgot about that ages ago, never mind.

Dative — buna, şuna, ona ("to/at this," and the complement of many verbs).

Buna gerçekten inanıyor musun?

Do you really believe this?

Ona söyledim ama dinlemedi.

I told him, but he didn't listen.

Locative — bunda, şunda, onda ("on/in/at this," "this one has…").

Bunda bir terslik var, fişi yanlış olmalı.

There's something off about this, the receipt must be wrong.

Ablative — bundan, şundan, ondan ("from this," and the very common bundan sonra / ondan sonra "after this/that").

Bundan daha iyisini bulamazsın.

You won't find anything better than this.

Genitive — bunun, şunun, onun ("of this," the possessor). Note onun is identical to the possessive pronoun "his/her/its" — same form, because both come from o + genitive.

Bunun fiyatı ne kadar?

How much is this? (lit. what's the price of this?)

Plurals: bunlar, şunlar, onlar

To pluralise a demonstrative pronoun — "these, those" — add -lar/-ler to the bare stem: bunlar, şunlar, onlar. Note that here the plural attaches before any case ending, and the plurals also keep the pronominal n when they then take a case: bunları "these (acc.)," onlara "to them/those," bunlardan "from these."

Case	bunlar	şunlar	onlar
Accusative	bunları	şunları	onları
Dative	bunlara	şunlara	onlara
Locative	bunlarda	şunlarda	onlarda
Ablative	bunlardan	şunlardan	onlardan
Genitive	bunların	şunların	onların

Bunları çöpe atma, hâlâ lazım olabilir.

Don't throw these away, they might still be needed.

Onlara güvenmiyorum, bir planları var gibi.

I don't trust them, it's like they have some plan.

💡

For the plurals you don't add a second n after -lar — the n is already inside the lar-bearing stem from the start (bunlar = bun + lar). So it's bunları, onlara, bunlardan — just attach the case ending to bunlar/onlar directly.

Determiner forms don't inflect

Keep this contrast sharp. Everything above is the pronoun (the demonstrative standing alone). When the demonstrative is a determiner in front of a noun, it does not take any of these endings — the noun does. So:

Bunu aldım. "I bought this." (pronoun → bunu inflects)
Bu kitabı aldım. "I bought this book." (determiner → bu stays bare, kitabı takes the accusative)

Bu evi çok seviyorum ama kirası yüksek.

I love this house, but the rent is high.

Bunu çok seviyorum ama pahalı.

I love this one, but it's expensive.

Common mistakes

❌ Buu masaya koy.

Incorrect — the pronominal n is dropped; it must be bunu.

✅ Bunu masaya koy.

Put this on the table.

❌ Bua inanmıyorum.

Incorrect — the dative needs the n: buna.

✅ Buna inanmıyorum.

I don't believe this.

❌ Budan sonra dikkatli ol.

Incorrect — the ablative keeps the n before -dan: bundan.

✅ Bundan sonra dikkatli ol.

Be careful from now on.

❌ Bu aldım, çok beğendim.

Incorrect as a pronoun — the object form needs the n: bunu aldım. (Bu kitabı aldım is fine as a determiner.)

✅ Bunu aldım, çok beğendim.

I bought this, I really liked it.

By far the most common error is omitting the n and producing buu, bua, budan. These are not just careless typos to a Turkish ear — they are non-words. Lock in the two-step build (stem → +n → +ending) and the problem disappears. The second slip is inflecting the demonstrative when it is really a determiner (bunu kitap for "this book") — in that role the demonstrative stays bare and the noun carries the case.

Key takeaways

Every oblique case of bu, şu, o inserts a pronominal n: the working stems are bun-, şun-, on-.
Core forms: bunu, buna, bunda, bundan, bunun (and the şun-/on- parallels). The n is obligatory in all cases, even before -da/-dan.
Build any form in two steps: stem n
, then the harmonising case ending. bun + a → buna; on + dan → ondan.
Plurals are bunlar, şunlar, onlar, inflecting as bunları, onlara, bunlardan, etc. — no extra n.
This is the pronoun paradigm. As a determiner, the demonstrative stays bare and the noun takes the case (bu kitabı, not bunu kitap).
Dropping the n (buu, bua) produces non-words — it is the one error to police.

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