Giving order or command in Turkish
When giving command in Turkish, we use different form of a root verb depending on who we are giving the order to.
Let us take the verb gitmek → to go in Turkish.
Go! in English applies to whoever you are saying it to. But in Turkish it depends on the pronoun.
See the table below.
| Pronoun | Command | Emir |
|---|---|---|
| Sen ( You ) | Go! | git |
| O ( He/She/It ) | Go! | gitsin |
| Siz ( You (pl.) ) | Go! | gidin/gidiniz |
| Onlar ( They ) | Go! | gitsinler |
Sen git. O gitsin. Siz gidin. yada Siz gidiniz. Onlar gitsinler or you can also say Onlar gitsin.
Let us another example and we will derive a general formula.
This time take the verb to bring → getirmek
| English | Turkish |
|---|---|
| You bring | Sen getir |
| Let him/her/it bring | O getirsin |
| You(pl.) bring | Siz getirin or Siz getiriniz |
| Let them bring | Onlar getirsin or getirsinler |
From the above two examples we can deduce that the general structure in Turkish for command depending on the pronoun of the order is given to is given in the table below.
Infinitive form of verbs in Turkish end with -mek or -mak.
When you remove the mek or mak from any verb you get the root verb.
| Verb | root of the verb |
|---|---|
| gelmek | gel |
| gitmek | git |
| uyumak | uyu |
| hatırlamak | hatırla |
| unutmak | unut |
So coming back to giving orders. The general structure is given in the table below.
| Pronouns | Verb |
|---|---|
| Sen | root of verb |
| O | root of verb + sin |
| Siz | root of verb + [ In or InIz ] where I is [i, ı, u, ü] |
| Onlar | root of verb + [ sin or sinler] |
Examples
| Verb | Sen (You) | O (He/She/It) | Siz (You (pl.)) | Onlar (They) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| gitmek (to go) | git | gitsin | gidin/gidiniz | gitsinler |
| getirmek (to bring) | getir | getirsin | getirin/getiriniz | getirsinler |
| uyumak (to sleep) | uyu | uyusun | uyuyun/uyuyunuz | uyusunlar |
| hatırlamak (to remember) | hatırla | hatırlasın | hatırlayın/hatırlayınız | hatırlasınlar |
| unutmak (to forget) | unut | unutsun | unutun/unutunuz | unutsunlar |
You may have realized for the roots that end in vowel like [ uyu or hatırla ] and a suffix is added to it that starts with a vowel. In this case uyu + un and hatırla + ın. We add ‘y’ in between the two vowels.
It is because in Turkish no two vowels come consecutively. It is the aesthetics of the language and the good old vowel harmony 🔗 .
Thanks for reading!
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