Breakdown of Kızın hediyesi çantada ama benimki nerede?
kız
girl
çanta
bag
nerede
where
hediye
gift
ama
but
benimki
mine (pronoun)
Questions & Answers about Kızın hediyesi çantada ama benimki nerede?
How exactly does benimki mean "mine" in this sentence?
The word benimki is made of the genitive pronoun benim (my) plus the suffix -ki. This -ki acts as a pronoun, replacing a noun we already know from context. Instead of repeating the noun and saying benim hediyem (my gift), you just add -ki to the genitive word to say benimki (mine).
Does the -ki suffix follow vowel harmony?
Unlike most Turkish suffixes, the possessive pronoun -ki does not follow vowel harmony. It almost always stays as -ki, regardless of the vowels in the word it attaches to (like in benimki or onunki). The only common exceptions are a few time words, like dünkü (yesterday's) or bugünkü (today's).
Why is it kızın hediyesi and not just kızın hediye?
To say "the girl's gift," you must use a full possessive noun compound. The owner takes the genitive suffix (kız + ın) and the owned object must take the possessive suffix. Because hediye ends in a vowel, it takes the buffer letter -s- followed by the 3rd person singular suffix -i, giving us hediyesi.
Why do we ask nerede instead of just nere?
The base word nere essentially means "what place." Because we are asking for the current location of the gift, expecting an answer with a locative suffix like çantada (in the bag), the question word itself must also take the locative suffix -de. This makes it nerede (in/at what place, or where).
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