Ben pasaportumu gümrükte gösteriyorum.

Breakdown of Ben pasaportumu gümrükte gösteriyorum.

ben
I
benim
my
göstermek
to show
-te
in
pasaport
the passport
gümrük
the customs
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Questions & Answers about Ben pasaportumu gümrükte gösteriyorum.

Why is ben included in Ben pasaportumu gümrükte gösteriyorum when it’s often omitted in Turkish?

The verb ending -um in gösteriyorum already indicates “I.” Native speakers frequently drop ben unless they want:
• Emphasis (“I, not someone else, am doing this”).
• Contrast (“I’m showing it, but he isn’t”).
• Extra clarity in complex sentences.
You can freely say Pasaportumu gümrükte gösteriyorum for a perfectly natural “I’m showing my passport at customs.”

What do the two suffixes -um and -u mean in pasaportumu, and why are they both there?

In pasaportumu you see:

  1. pasaport (passport)
  2. -um = 1st person singular possessive (“my passport”)
  3. -u = accusative case marker showing that the object is definite (“the passport,” not just any passport).
    So the layering is pasaport-um (my passport) + ‑u (the direct object is specific).
Why is the object marked with the accusative case here? In English we don’t add a special ending for “my passport.”
Turkish marks definite direct objects with -ı/-i/-u/-ü (vowel-harmonized). If you’re showing “a passport” (indefinite), you’d often drop the accusative: Pasaport gösteriyorum (“I’m showing a passport”). But when it’s your known, specific passport, you use the accusative: pasaportumu.
In the sentence we have gümrükte, but could we say gümrüğe instead?

They mean different things:
gümrükte = at/in customs (locative case)
gümrüğe = to customs (dative case)
Since you want to say “I’m showing my passport at the customs desk,” you need the locative -te suffix.

What does the suffix -te in gümrükte express, and why isn’t it -de or -da?
-de/-da is the locative marker (“at/in”). Because gümrük ends in the voiceless consonant k, the initial d of the suffix becomes its voiceless counterpart t (a regular consonant-assimilation rule). Vowel harmony also picks e (the front unrounded vowel), so you get gümrük-te.
Why is gösteriyorum used (the progressive) instead of the simple present tense?

Turkish distinguishes:
–(I)r for habitual/general truths (“I show passports [as a job]”).
-iyor for actions happening right now.
Since you’re doing it at this moment in customs, you need the progressive gösteriyor-um (“I am showing”).

Can I move the word order, for example say Gümrükte pasaportumu gösteriyorum or Pasaportumu gümrükte gösteriyorum?

Yes. Turkish is fairly flexible with S-O-A-V order (Subject-Object-Adverbial-Verb). Shifting elements only changes emphasis:
Gümrükte pasaportumu gösteriyorum (focus on the location)
Pasaportumu gümrükte gösteriyorum (neutral)
The core meaning stays the same as long as the case endings and verb form stay intact.

Where is the English preposition “at” in Turkish? I don’t see a separate word for it in gümrükte.
Turkish uses case-ending suffixes instead of independent prepositions. The idea of “at” or “in” is built into the -de/-da suffix. So gümrükte literally means “in/at customs” without needing another word.