Learn Turkish: Kızın hediyesi çantada ama benimki nerede? - The girl's gift is in the bag, but where is mine?

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?