Turkish/Accusative

The Accusative case is used to mark the object of a transative verb. Normally, English uses word order for this purpose.


 * I'll clean the table right now.

In Turkish, the Accusative case is used for this instead. This allows the word order to be used for other purposes, such as to indicate stress.


 * Şimdi masayı temizleyeceğim.
 * Masayı şimdi temizleyeceğim.

This also allows us to express the distinction between definite and indefinite nouns in the object position, compensating for the lack of the article the.


 * Sana oyunu aldım. I bought you the game.
 * Sana oyun aldım. I bought you a game.

Formation
The accusative case ending is -(y)ı, with respect to 4-way vowel harmony. When the noun stem ends in a vowel, the buffer consonant y is normally used.

An exception to this are the demonstrative pronouns, which take n instead.

Combining with other endings
Case endings normally come after the possessive endings, as well as the plural ending. Special care must be taken to not confuse the accusative ending -(y)ı with the possessive ending -(s)ı, which look different after vowels, but become the same after consonants.


 * Beyoğlu'nu
 * Gece lambasını
 * Annenin parasını

This creates ambiguity between second and third persons when the pronoun is dropped.


 * Senin işini
 * Onun işini

Usage
As stated in the introduction, the accusative is used to mark the object of transative verbs. While not all verbs use accusative in the object, most verbs do.


 * Ahmet ödevini yaptı.
 * Zehra masayı temizliyor.

When the object is directly located before the verb, the accusative is used to distinguish definite nouns from indefinite ones.


 * Pasta aldım. I bought a cake
 * Pastayı aldım. I bought the cake.

Some adjectives make nouns mandatorily definite or indefinite. For example, after numerals and indefinite quantifiers (like birçok, azıcık etc.), the accusative ending is dropped.


 * Bir pasta aldım.
 * Birçok kalem aldım.
 * Azıcık süt aldım.

On the other hand, after demonstratives (o, bu and şu), possessives and definite quantifiers (like her, tüm etc.), the accusative ending is mandatorily retained.


 * Bisikletimi aldım.
 * Bu bisikleti aldım.
 * Tüm bisikletleri aldım.

When a noun has a possessive ending, the accusative ending is retained even in the presence of an indefinite adjective.


 * Bir kalemini aldım.
 * Birkaç kalemini aldım.

Word order
However, when the object is not directly located before the verb, this distinction is lost, and all objects are necessarily declined in the accusative.


 * Bir kalemi sana aldım. (Not "Bir kalem sana aldım.")
 * Azıcık sütü bakkaldan aldım. (Not "Azıcık süt bakkaldan aldım")

Because of this, while indefinite objects tend to stay immidiately before the verb, definite objects come before adverbials, postpositional clauses and oblique objects (objects declined in cases other than accusative). Any deviation from this order is only used for stressing purposes. So, the following sentences are unstressed:


 * Mektubu sana yazdım. I wrote the letter for you
 * Sana mektup yazdım. I wrote you a letter.