Turkish 41 - Expressing possession with var and yok

We have already learned how to express possession using the locative case suffix:

I have no money.Bende para yok.
You have the pen.Kalem sizde.

In this lesson you will learn to express possession using the possession suffix and var or yok.

I have no money.Param yok.
I have pain.Ağrım var.
He has an expensive watch.Pahalı (bir) saati var.
She has a beautiful bag.Güzel (bir) çantası var.
She has one beautiful bag.Bir güzel çantası var.
Do you have a bicycle?Bisikletin var mı?

Note that the word saat becomes saati with a possession suffix, and not saatı as we would expect. Turkish has several words borrowed from other languages that do not obey the rules of vowel harmony. Saat is one of them, and you will see more of them during the rest of the course.

If you know that you write his watch as saati, then you also know that watches is saatler and that on the watch is saatte. If a word doesn't obey the rules of vowel harmony in one suffix, then it doesn't obey the rules of vowel harmony in all suffixes.

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