In Turkish, we can express the English verb to be by adding a suffix to the end of a noun or adjective. Which suffix we add depends on the subject the verb applies to.
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| First person | (y)İm | (y)İz |
| Second person | sİn | sİnİz |
| Third person | (lEr) |
The y is between parentheses as usual, since it is only present as a buffer letter to prevent two vowels from ending up next to each other.
Below you can see the suffix for to be applied to several words. Here Kişiyim for example means I am a person, and Kadınız means We are women. You can guess the rest of the meanings yourself.
Note that nouns ending in ç, p, t or k can change when followed by a vowel. Their last letter can change into c, b, d and ğ or g respectively. As a general rule, nouns consisting of multiple syllables change their last letter, and nouns consisting of single syllables don't. However, there are plenty of exceptions to this rule, which you will need to memorize.
| Suffix | Kişi | Gül | Çocuk | Ağaç. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ben | (y)İm | Kişiyim. | Gülüm. | Çocuğum. | Ağacım. |
| Sen | sİn | Kişisin. | Gülsün. | Çocuksun. | Ağaçsın. |
| O | Kişi. | Gül. | Çocuk. | Ağaç. | |
| Biz | (y)İz | Kişiyiz. | Gülüz. | Çocuğuz. | Ağacız. |
| Siz | sİnİz | Kişisiniz. | Gülsünüz. | Çocuksunuz. | Ağaçsınız. |
| Onlar | (lEr) | Kişi(ler). | Gül(ler). | Çocuk(lar). | Ağaç(lar). |
Again, the lEr at the end of the third person plural is not always present. We don't use lEr when speaking about inanimate objects. When referring to humans or animals, lEr is optional and is often not used when the subject is present in the sentence, already indicating plurality.
