The Genitive Case
To explicitly state who owns something—like saying "the company's boss" or "the lawyer's secretary"—Turkish uses the genitive case. You attach a genitive suffix to the owner, and a 3rd-person possessive suffix to the owned item:
Owner + -(n)in & Item + -(s)i
Suffixing the Owner
The genitive suffix follows 4-way vowel harmony (-ın, -in, -un, -ün).
If the owner word ends in a consonant, attach the suffix directly:
- şirket (company) becomes şirketin (the company's)
- patron (boss) becomes patronun (the boss's)
If the owner word ends in a vowel, add the buffer consonant n before the suffix (-nın, -nin, -nun, -nün):
- araba (car) becomes arabanın (the car's)
Consonant Mutation
Just as with other vowel suffixes, adding the genitive suffix to words ending in hard consonants (like p, ç, t, k) often causes them to soften. For example, k usually softens to ğ (yumuşak ge).
- çocuk (child) becomes çocuğun (the child's)
Saying Someone "Has" Something
You can use the genitive structure with the word var (there is) to express that a specific person has something. By saying "the student's question exists," you are saying "the student has a question."
Adding Spatial Suffixes
When adding a spatial suffix (like "to", "in", or "from") to a possessed item, you must insert the buffer consonant n after the possessive suffix.