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Turkish has no separate verb for "to be" in the present tense; it adds a person ending straight onto a noun or adjective.

What the present copula does

The ending goes directly on the predicate, with nothing standing in for a verb. öğretmen means "teacher", and öğretmenim means "I am a teacher" — the whole of "I am" is the ending -im.

The same endings work on an adjective. hasta means "ill", and hastayım means "I am ill". Which ending you use depends on the person, and its exact spelling depends on the last vowel of the word.

Four-way vowel harmony

The vowel inside each ending is a high vowel, and it matches the last vowel of the word in two ways at once — front or back, and rounded or not. After e or i the first-person ending is -im; after a or ı it is -ım; after o or u it is -um; and after ö or ü it is -üm. The second-person ending moves in step, running -sin, -sın, -sun, -sün.

Because rounding counts here alongside frontness, the ending settles into four shapes rather than two.

The six person endings

There are six persons, and on a word that ends in a consonant the ending attaches with nothing in between. ben "I" gives öğretmenim and sen "you" gives öğretmensin. The third person o adds no ending at all: the bare word öğretmen already says "he is a teacher". biz gives öğretmeniz, siz gives öğretmensiniz, and onlar takes the plural -ler to give öğretmenler.

The buffer before a vowel

The first-person endings open with a vowel, so a word that also ends in a vowel would leave two vowels side by side. A buffer -y- steps in between them, and it does so only in the first person, singular and plural. hasta "ill" becomes hastayım, iyi "good" becomes iyiyim, and öğrenci "student" becomes öğrenciyiz.

A word that ends in a consonant leaves nothing to keep apart, so no buffer appears: öğretmen takes -im straight away and gives öğretmenim. The second- and third-person endings all begin with a consonant, so they never call for the buffer.

The endings in use

Here are the endings on ordinary predicates, one word per person.

Negation with a separate word

Turkish does not turn the copula negative by changing the ending. It uses a separate word, değil "not", and the person ending leaves the noun and lands on değil instead. So öğretmenim "I am a teacher" becomes öğretmen değilim "I am not a teacher": the noun öğretmen returns to its bare shape and değil carries the -im.

• değilim — I am not
• değilsin — you are not
• değiliz — we are not
• değilsiniz — you are not (formal or plural)
• değiller — they are not

Common slips

A few endings go wrong in predictable ways, and each mistake below has a correct partner.

• hastaım drops the buffer; with the -y- in place it is hastayım.
• iyiim drops it too; the word is iyiyim.
• öğretmenım puts a back vowel on a front-vowel word; the front word takes -im, giving öğretmenim.
• hastasin does the reverse, a front vowel on a back-vowel word; it should be hastasın.
• doğrudır misses the rounding: after o or u the ending rounds, so it is doğrudur.

The zero third person and the formal ending

In everyday speech the third person carries no ending. o evde means "he is at home" — the predicate evde stands on its own with nothing added.

In formal or written statements the third person can take -dır. doğru "correct" becomes doğrudur "it is correct", and güzel "beautiful" becomes güzeldir. This ending frames a general or official truth; ordinary conversation keeps the bare word.