Lesson n.24: Compound nouns in Turkish - genitive case. Conversation: Holiday

In this lesson we will focus on the the use of GENITIVE CASE in Turkish in the formation of compound nouns.
Before you start this lesson it may be useful to review this Table in order review the rules applying to the cases.

Listen to this passage.It's holiday time and kids do not go to school. You will familiarize with new words and expressions.

" Çocuklar şimdi okula gitmiyorlar,çünkü okullar tatil.Onlar dinlaniyorlar,denize gidiyorlar.kitap okuyorlar v spor yapıyorlar.Benim bir erkek kardeşim var.O hiç bir yere gitmiyor. Sabahtan akşama kadar evde oturuyor.Annesi ona çok kızıyor. Çünkü o çok şımarık bir çocuk.Hep piyano çalıyor ve çok gürültü yapıyor.Günde 5 kere yemek yiyor sonra uyuyor ya da piyano çalıyor."

VOCABULARY/SÖZLÜK

Şimdi: Now,in this moment

Tatil: Holiday

Kitap: Book

Dinlemek: To rest

Okumak: To read

Spor yapmak: To do sports

Hiç bir yere: nowhere

Sabahtan akşama kadar: from morning to night

Kardeş: Brother or sister - fratello,sorella

Oturmak: To sit down

Anne: Mum, mother

Şımarık: spoiled

Gürültü: noise

Piyano çalmak: to play the piano

Bir kere: Once

Uyumak: To sleep

GRAMMATICAL NOTES

COMPOUNDS

In Turkish compounds can be assimilated to possessive relationship and appear in three different forms.The ownership of any object,material or quality is expressed by one these forms:

1. A form corresponing to the equivalent of  aphostrofe in English.In Turkish this is obtained by attaching the possessive suffixes ( -in, -ın, -un, -ün) or ( -nin, -nın, -nun, -nün for nouns ending in a vowel) to the noun to show the possessor and the 3rd person possessive ending to the noun possessed.

 ( -in, -ın, -un, -ün) are the genitive endings and their choice occurs, do not forget that, in accordance with the vowel harmony.

When the noun ends in a vowel only "n" is to be attached.

The possessed noun takes possessive endings ( -i, -ı, -u, -ü )after consonants and (-si, sı, -su, -sü) after vowel ending nouns.

The following chart will help understand this principle:

    2.  If we want to express a qualifying relationship such as "Yatak odası" - (Bedroom) or Atatürk Havalimanı -(Atatürk Airport) the first nound indicates the origin, the function or the type of the modified noun and will remain unchanged in its form, not taking any suffix.
Only the possessed noun (second term of the compound) will take the 3rd person possessive suffix.

                                The following chart will help understand this principle:

 Do not confuse noun/noun compounds with an adjective/noun compound.

The latter remain unchanged in both components.

Examples:   Büyük Sinema, Küçük Tiyatro

  3. In the 3rd form neither the modifiying noun   nor the modifier take any suffix. In this case the modifier indicats the material of which the modified noun is made.

A few example will better clarify:

Material                   Modified noun

Altin                            Küpe                         ( Golden earring)

Naylon                        Çorap                        ( Nylon socks)