English has two parallel possessive sets: the determiner ("my book") and the standalone pronoun ("this book is mine"). Turkish builds the second set with a single, tidy move: take the genitive pronoun — benim "my," senin "your" — and add -ki. The result, benimki "mine," seninki "yours," literally means "my-one," and it lets you talk about something you own without naming it. The trap for English speakers is using the bare genitive benim for "mine"; in Turkish benim alone is only "my," and you need the -ki to make it stand on its own.
How it is built: genitive + invariant -ki
The recipe is: genitive pronoun + -ki. The genitive is the "of/'s" form you already know, and -ki nominalizes it into "the one belonging to X."
| Pronoun | Genitive ('my, your...') | Standalone ('mine, yours...') |
|---|---|---|
| ben (I) | benim | benimki (mine) |
| sen (you, sg.) | senin | seninki (yours) |
| o (he/she/it) | onun | onunki (his/hers/its) |
| biz (we) | bizim | bizimki (ours) |
| siz (you, pl./formal) | sizin | sizinki (yours) |
| onlar (they) | onların | onlarınki (theirs) |
Bu araba senin mi? Hayır, benimki şu köşede park hâlde.
Is this car yours? No, mine is parked over there on the corner.
Onların evi büyük ama bizimki bahçeli, bence daha keyifli.
Their house is big, but ours has a garden — I think it's nicer.
Why -ki never changes shape
Almost every Turkish suffix harmonizes — the vowel flips to a/e or ı/i/u/ü to match the stem. -ki is one of the famous handful that does not. It stays -ki no matter what comes before it, which is why "mine" is benimki and never benimkı, even though benim has the back vowel i... wait — benim ends in i (front), but the point holds across the board: onunki keeps -ki after the back-vowel onun, and bizimki, sizinki, onlarınki all keep -ki too.
Senin telefonun yeni, oysa onunki en az beş yaşında.
Your phone is new, whereas his is at least five years old.
When you use it: the noun is dropped
You reach for benimki exactly when the possessed noun has just been mentioned (or is obvious) and you do not want to repeat it. It stands in for "the one that is mine / yours / theirs."
Herkes kendi valizini aldı; benimki en ağır olanıydı.
Everyone took their own suitcase; mine was the heaviest one.
Senin fikrini anladım ama bence bizimki daha uygulanabilir.
I understood your idea, but I think ours is more workable.
The standalone possessive often does the heavy lifting in comparisons, where repeating the noun would be clumsy.
Komşunun bahçesi güzel, fakat onlarınki kadar bakımlı değil.
The neighbour's garden is nice, but it's not as well-kept as theirs.
It is a full noun: case it like one
Because -ki turns the phrase into a noun ("the one of mine"), the result can take case endings, the plural, and even a buffer -n- before a case suffix — just like any noun ending in a possessive. So "to mine" is benimkine, "I took mine" uses benimkini, and "the ones that are mine" is benimkiler.
Senin anahtarını değil, yanlışlıkla benimkini almışım.
I accidentally took mine, not your key.
Onların projesine değil, bizimkine odaklanalım önce.
Let's focus on ours first, not on their project.
Çocukların oyuncakları karışmış; seninkileri ayırıp bir kenara koydum.
The kids' toys got mixed up; I separated yours and set them aside.
Do not confuse it with the other -ki
Turkish has a second, look-alike -ki that means "the one at/in [a place or time]" and attaches to the locative or to time words: masadaki "the one on the table," dünkü "yesterday's." That -ki also nominalizes, but it builds on -de (location), not on the genitive (possession). Keep the two jobs apart: benimki = "the one that is mine" (possession), masadaki = "the one on the table" (location).
Masadaki kalem senin mi, yoksa benimki gibi mavi olan başka biri mi var?
Is the pen on the table yours, or is there another blue one like mine?
Common mistakes
❌ Bu araba benim, seninki şurada.
The bare genitive benim means only 'my'; for the standalone 'mine' you need -ki: benimki.
✅ Bu araba benimki, seninki şurada.
This car is mine; yours is over there.
❌ Yanlışlıkla benimki aldım, özür dilerim.
A following case ending needs the buffer -n-: 'I took mine' is benimkini, not bare benimki.
✅ Yanlışlıkla benimkini aldım, özür dilerim.
I accidentally took mine; I'm sorry.
❌ Onun kalem kayıp, onunkı bulamıyoruz.
Two errors: 'his one' is onunki, and -ki never harmonizes to onunkı.
✅ Onun kalemi kayıp, onunkini bulamıyoruz.
His pen is lost; we can't find his.
❌ Bizim daha güzel, sizin eski.
Standalone 'ours/yours' needs -ki: bizimki, sizinki. Bare bizim/sizin are only 'our/your'.
✅ Bizimki daha güzel, sizinki eski.
Ours is nicer; yours is old.
❌ Onlarınkı çoktan gelmiş, bizimkı hâlâ yolda.
-ki is invariant: it's onlarınki and bizimki, never -kı.
✅ Onlarınki çoktan gelmiş, bizimki hâlâ yolda.
Theirs has already arrived; ours is still on the way.
Key takeaways
- Standalone possessives = genitive pronoun + -ki: benimki, seninki, onunki, bizimki, sizinki, onlarınki.
- They mean "mine, yours, his..." and are used when the possessed noun is dropped.
- -ki is invariant — it never harmonizes, so always -ki, never -kı.
- The phrase is a noun: it takes case and plural, with a buffer -n- before a case ending (benimkini, benimkine, seninkiler).
- Don't confuse possessive -ki (on the genitive: benimki) with locative -ki (on -de: masadaki "the one on the table").
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Start learning Turkish→Related Topics
- 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.
- ki and -ki: Three Different ItemsB2 — Telling apart the three ki's — the separate conjunction ki, the attached non-harmonizing suffix -ki (evdeki, benimki), and the temporal -ki (dünkü).
- 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.
- The -ki of Place and Time: evdeki, dünküB1 — The relativizing suffix -ki turns a locative or time phrase into a modifier or pronoun — evdeki 'the one at home', masadaki kitap 'the book on the table', dünkü 'yesterday's' — with no relative clause needed.