Turkish/Nominal Sentences

In Turkish, not every sentence has to have a verb. In fact, even a single noun can be a sentence. There are two types of these sentences, copular sentences and var/yok sentences, both of which will be covered in this article.

Copular Sentences
In Turkish, there is no verb to be. Instead, the following suffixes are appended into a noun to convey the meaning of to be:


 * O bir öğretmen. He is a teacher.

Speakers of Russian may be familiar with this.

Pronoun dropping
In Turkish, similar to many other languages, the pronoun is usually omitted while forming a sentence. The rules of pronoun dropping are rather complex, and are covered in Turkish/Pronouns. It is for now enough to know that the pronoun isn't necessary. Therefore, the following examples are completely valid:


 * Evdeyim. I'm home.
 * Aptalsın. You are dumb.
 * Öğrenciyiz. We are students.
 * Bizimlesiniz. You are with us.

The suffix for onlar is used only when the pronoun is dropped.


 * Onlar evde. They are home.
 * Evdeler. They are home.

Negative
In order to negate a copular sentence, the word değil is used. Copular suffixes are appended to değil instead.


 * Öğretmen değilim. I'm not a teacher.
 * Zeki değilsin. You aren't smart.

The word değil is pronounced in formal speech, and  in casual speech.

Questions
Questions are formed with mı/mi/mu/mü, which undergoes vowel harmony, but is written as a separate word. The question particle comes before the copular suffixes, but after değil.


 * Aptal mısın? Are you dumb?
 * Sırada mıyız? Are we next?
 * Öğretmen değil misin? Aren't you (a/the) teacher?

There is...
To say that a thing exists, we just use the word var.


 * Vakit var. There is time.
 * Üç çocuk var. There are three children.

To say that a thing does not exist, we use the word yok.


 * Hiç vakit yok. There isn't any time/There is no time.
 * Evde soğan yok. There aren't onions in the house.

Questions may be formed by adding the word mı after var and mu after yok.


 * Domates var mı? Are there tomatoes?
 * Kimse yok mu? Isn't there anyone?/Is there no one?

I have...
Turkish also lacks a verb for to have. Instead, we just use var/yok together with possessive suffixes.

Noun constructs and possessive suffixes are covered in greater detail in another article.
 * Kaç çocuğun var? How many children do you have? Literally: How many of your children are there?
 * Yakıtım yok. I don't have fuel. Literally: My fuel doesn't exist.