Turkish -ki Suffix: The One At, Of, Belonging To
How the Turkish suffix -ki builds "the one at, on, or belonging to" from a word that already carries case — it follows the locative (masadaki) and the genitive (benimki), it ignores vowel harmony and stays -ki, and it rounds to -kü only on the day words dünkü and bugünkü.
Ekle ·
The relational suffix takes a word that already marks a place or an owner and builds "the one there" or "the one that belongs to them" from it, in a single shape that never changes.
What the relational suffix does
Turkish has a small suffix, -ki, that points at a thing by where it is or whose it is. Put it on masada "on the table" and you get masadaki, "the one on the table"; put it on benim "my" and you get benimki, "mine". One ending does the work English spreads across "the one that…" and "mine, yours, theirs".
The suffix never lands on a bare noun. The word it joins has already taken a case ending — the locative for a place, the genitive for an owner — and -ki builds straight on top of that. ev first becomes the locative evde "at home", and only then evdeki "the one at home".
Attaching after case
Two case endings feed the suffix. On a place it follows the locative -de: masa becomes masada becomes masadaki, and ev becomes evde becomes evdeki. On an owner it follows the genitive -in: ben becomes benim becomes benimki, and sen becomes senin becomes seninki.
A short list of time words takes the suffix directly, with no case in between: yarın "tomorrow" gives yarınki "tomorrow's", akşam "evening" gives akşamki "the evening's", and şimdi "now" gives şimdiki "the present one".
The ending keeps one shape
Most Turkish endings copy the vowel of the word they join. The relational suffix does not. Whatever the host's last vowel — a, ı, o, u on one side and e, i, ö, ü on the other — the ending stays -ki. Both rows of the table below land in the same column.
| Last vowel of the host | Example hosts | The ending |
|---|---|---|
| a · ı · o · u | masada · yarın · akşam | -ki |
| e · i · ö · ü | evde · şimdi | -ki |
The one at a place
Each of these starts from a place and names the thing sitting in it — read every one as an answer to "which one?"
| Turkish | Parts | English |
|---|---|---|
| masadaki | masa + da + ki | the one on the table |
| evdeki | ev + de + ki | the one at home; the one in the house |
The one that belongs to someone
Here the suffix sits on an owner, and the result stands in for the thing owned — "mine", "yours", "Ali's one".
| Turkish | Parts | English |
|---|---|---|
| benimki | ben + im + ki | mine |
| seninki | sen + in + ki | yours |
| Ali'ninki | Ali + nin + ki | Ali's (one) |
It stands apart from vowel harmony
This is the point that trips learners. The instinct drilled by every other suffix is to reshape the ending to match the word — to reach for a back-vowel version after a back-vowel host. The relational suffix refuses. masada ends in the back vowel a, yet the form is masadaki, never the harmonised masadakı. In the same way it is yarınki, and the tidy-looking yarınkı is simply not a word.
Possessives that stand on their own
Add -ki to a possessor and you get a word that needs no noun after it. Where English turns "my" into mine and "your" into yours, Turkish adds this one ending: benim "my" gives benimki "mine", and Ali'nin "Ali's" gives Ali'ninki "Ali's one". The same works right across the pronouns — onun "his" gives onunki "his one".
| Turkish | Parts | English |
|---|---|---|
| benimki | ben + im + ki | mine |
| Ali'ninki | Ali + nin + ki | Ali's (one) |
The result behaves as a noun
Once the suffix is on, the whole word is a noun again, and it takes the endings any noun can. Add the plural -ler and masadaki "the one on the table" becomes masadakiler "the ones on the table"; give it the accusative and it becomes masadakini, the same "the one on the table" now as a definite object, with a linking consonant appearing inside.
| Turkish | Parts | English |
|---|---|---|
| masadaki | masa + da + ki | the one on the table |
| masadakiler | masa + da + ki + ler | the ones on the table |
The rounded form for day words
One small group of words rounds the ending to -kü. The day words — dün "yesterday", gün "day", and bugün "today" — pull the vowel to match their own rounded ü, giving dünkü "yesterday's" and bugünkü "today's". Any longer word built on gün rounds the same way, so the shape günkü turns up wherever "day" is the last part.
| Turkish | Parts | English |
|---|---|---|
| dünkü | dün + kü | yesterday's |
| bugünkü | bugün + kü | today's |
Frequently asked questions
- What does -ki add to a word?
- It builds "the one that is at, on, or belongs to" something. On a place it gives forms like masadaki "the one on the table"; on an owner it gives benimki "mine". The word it attaches to has already taken a case — the locative for a place, the genitive for an owner — and -ki turns the whole thing into a new noun.
- Does -ki follow vowel harmony?
- No. It keeps one shape whatever the host's last vowel is. masada ends in a back vowel, yet the form is masadaki, not the harmonised masadakı; and it is yarınki, never yarınkı. The single rounded shape -kü is a separate, closed set, not ordinary harmony.
- When does -ki become -kü?
- Only on a small set of day words: dün "yesterday", gün "day", and bugün "today" round the ending to -kü, giving dünkü and bugünkü. Words built on gün round the same way, as in günkü. Everywhere else the ending stays -ki.
- How do I say 'mine', 'yours', and so on in Turkish?
- Add -ki to the possessor. "My" benim becomes "mine" benimki, "your" senin becomes "yours" seninki, and "his" onun becomes onunki "his one". On a name the genitive keeps its apostrophe: Ali'nin gives Ali'ninki "Ali's one".