Turkish Reflexive Pronoun kendi: kendim, kendisi Explained
How the Turkish reflexive pronoun kendi works — the possessive endings that build kendim, kendin and kendisi, the emphatic 'I did it myself', the reflexive object with a case ending stacked on in kendimi and kendine, and kendisi as a polite 'he' or 'she'.
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The reflexive pronoun means 'self' — it takes the ordinary possessive endings to give 'myself', 'yourself' and 'himself', and stacks a case ending when it becomes the object of the verb.
What the reflexive pronoun does
kendi is the reflexive pronoun, 'self'. It is a whole word rather than a suffix, and it takes the ordinary possessive endings on a fixed stem: kendim 'myself', kendin 'yourself', kendisi 'himself' or 'herself'. The stem never changes shape and there is no vowel harmony to track, so you add only the ending that names the person.
kendi does two jobs. Standing next to the subject it is emphatic: kendim yaptım is 'I did it myself'. Taking a case ending it becomes the reflexive object: kendimi aynada gördüm is 'I saw myself in the mirror'. The sections below work through each in turn.
How the forms are built
The possessed forms line up in a plain three-by-three: first, second and third person, each in a singular and a plural. Every cell is kendi plus the possessive ending for that person.
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | kendim | kendimiz |
| 2. | kendin | kendiniz |
| 3. | kendi · kendisi | kendileri |
The endings are the ordinary possessives. The first person adds -m and the second -n, giving kendim and kendin. The third person adds -si to the vowel-final stem, giving kendisi, and its plural is kendileri. When kendi is the object of the verb, a case ending stacks after the possessive — the person is marked first, then the case: kendimi, kendine, kendini.
The forms one per person
Each of these is the plain emphatic pronoun for one person — the form you reach for to say 'I myself', 'you yourself', and so on.
| Turkish | Parts | English |
|---|---|---|
| kendim | kendi + m | myself |
| kendin | kendi + n | yourself |
| kendisi | kendi + si | himself, herself, itself |
| kendileri | kendi + leri | themselves |
Pronoun or reflexive verb
Turkish has a second route to a reflexive, built straight into the verb. A voice suffix folds the reflexive into the verb stem: yıkandı is 'he washed (himself)' and giyindi is 'he got dressed'. The pronoun does the same job with a separate word — kendini yıkadı, 'he washed himself', carries the reflexive in kendini where yıkandı carries it in an ending. This page covers the pronoun; the verb-internal reflexive is a separate mechanism, learned later.
Two forms learners get wrong
Two forms a learner reaches for are wrong. For 'himself' the naive kendii — kendi with a bare vowel ending — is never said; a stem that ends in a vowel takes -si, which is why the form is kendisi. And kendisim tries to stack the first-person -m onto the third-person kendisi; 'myself' is simply kendim, the -m straight on the stem.
| Turkish | Parts | English |
|---|---|---|
| kendisi | kendi + si | himself, herself |
| kendim | kendi + m | myself |
The emphatic self
In apposition to the subject, kendi adds emphasis — it does the work of English 'self' tacked on for stress. kendim yaptım is 'I did it myself', and işi kendisi bitirdi is 'he finished the work himself'. The pronoun matches the subject in person, so 'I ... myself' takes kendim and 'he ... himself' takes kendisi.
| Turkish | Parts | English |
|---|---|---|
| kendim | kendi + m | (I) myself |
| kendisi | kendi + si | (he) himself, herself |
The reflexive object
When the action turns back on the doer, kendi takes a case ending and stands as the object of the verb. The accusative gives kendimi and kendini — kendimi aynada gördüm is 'I saw myself in the mirror', kendini seviyor is 'he loves himself'. The dative gives kendine: kendine iyi bak is 'take good care of yourself'. The case rides on top of the possessive, so the person stays marked throughout.
| Turkish | Parts | English |
|---|---|---|
| kendimi | kendi + m + i | myself (object) |
| kendine | kendi + n + e | to yourself |
| kendini | kendi + n + i | yourself, himself (object) |
A polite third person
kendisi leads a second life as a polite third person. Standing on its own as the subject, it simply means 'he' or 'she' with a note of courtesy: kendisi öğretmen is 'he is a teacher'. In this use it is not reflexive at all — the setting tells the polite 'he/she' apart from the emphatic 'himself'.
| Turkish | Parts | English |
|---|---|---|
| kendisi | kendi + si | he, she (polite) |
Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between kendi and kendisi?
- kendi is the bare stem, an emphatic 'self' set next to a noun. kendisi adds the third-person ending, so it means 'himself' or 'herself', and it also serves as a polite 'he' or 'she': kendisi öğretmen is 'he is a teacher'. For the other persons you use the matching ending — kendim 'myself', kendin 'yourself'.
- How do you say 'myself' as the object of a verb?
- Add a case ending after the possessive. The accusative gives kendimi — kendimi aynada gördüm is 'I saw myself in the mirror' — and the dative gives kendine, as in kendine iyi bak, 'take good care of yourself'. The person is marked first and the case ending stacks after it, so kendini is 'yourself' as an object.
- Why does kendisi sometimes mean just 'he' or 'she'?
- Because kendisi doubles as a polite third-person pronoun. Next to the subject it is emphatic, 'himself' or 'herself'; standing alone as the subject it is a respectful 'he' or 'she', as in kendisi öğretmen, 'he is a teacher'. Only the context separates the two.
- What is the difference between kendini yıkadı and yıkandı?
- They reach the same meaning by different routes. kendini yıkadı uses the reflexive pronoun as a separate object word, 'he washed himself'. yıkandı folds the reflexive into the verb with a voice suffix, 'he washed (himself)'. Verbs like yıkandı and giyindi carry the reflexive inside the verb; this topic is about the pronoun, which does it with a standalone word.