The object, and the order of a sentence

8.1 A few verbs to begin with

The object of a sentence is what its verb acts on: the tea in "I'm drinking tea", the door in "She's opening the door". So objects come with verbs, and the Turkish verb has a chapter of its own a little further on. Until then, these will do, each in two forms: one for "I", and one for "he", "she" or "it".

They are all built the same way. First comes the stem, which carries the meaning: iç-, "drink", oku-, "read". Then -(I)yor, which says the action is going on, now or these days. The glosses call it PROG, for "progressive", the grammar name for English's -ing. Last comes the person: -um is "I", the same ending that says "I am" after a noun, as in öğretmenim, "I'm a teacher". With nothing after -(I)yor, the subject is he, she or it.

The ending already says who, so ben, "I", is left out unless it is stressed.

Where English says "I want" and "I know", without -ing, Turkish still uses -(I)yor: istiyorum is "I want", and tanıyorum "I know" someone. Some stems change a little before the ending, as iste-, "want", does in istiyorum; that belongs to the chapter on verbs.

8.2 -(y)I: the definite object

When the object is a particular thing, one the listener can pick out, it takes the ending -(y)I: -i, -ı, -u or -ü by harmony, with a y in front of it after a vowel. Grammars call it the accusative, and the glosses write ACC.

English shows the same thing with "the", "this" and "that". Turkish has no "the", and on an object the ending does much of its work: kapıyı is "the door" because the listener knows which door, and kitabı is "this book" because bu points to it.

The vowel follows harmony, and the y comes only after a vowel. A word's last consonant softens before it, as before any ending that starts with a vowel: kitap becomes kitabı, and ekmek ekmeği.

A name is always a particular one, so a name as an object always takes the ending, after an apostrophe: Ali'yi, Ayşe'yi, Mehmet'i, İstanbul'u.

Turkish has two verbs for "know". tanıyor is knowing a person or a place, from having met it; biliyor is knowing a fact, or the way somewhere.

A whole kind of thing takes the ending too when it is loved or liked as a kind: cats in general, all of them.

For a liking that is part of who someone is, Turkish also uses another tense, the aorist of chapter 14: kedileri severim. Both are everyday Turkish.

-(y)I is only for objects. The subject, the one doing the action, never takes it, however definite it is: in Zeynep kapıyı açıyor, Zeynep has no ending.

8.3 Me, you, him: pronouns as objects

The pronouns take -(y)I as well. A pronoun points at someone in particular, so as an object it always has the ending.

o takes an n before the ending: onu. So do bu and şu when they stand alone, as "this one" and "that one": bunu, şunu. Before a noun they don't change, and the noun takes the ending instead: bu kitabı, "this book", but bunu, "this one".

Where English says "wait for", bekliyor takes a plain object: beni bekliyor, "she's waiting for me". A Turkish verb doesn't always want the object English would give it, and the chapter on verbs lists the common ones that differ.

8.4 Indefinite objects, left bare

An object that is no particular one takes no ending: some bread, a book, tea in general. English puts "a" or "some" in front of it, or nothing; Turkish leaves the noun as it is.

The first is bread off the shelf, any bread. The second is bread both speakers know about: the loaf on the table, or the one just mentioned.

A bare object often names a kind of thing more than a thing. Kitap okuyorum is "I'm reading", book-reading, and doesn't say which book or how many; kitabı okuyorum is "I'm reading the book".

With bir, "a", the object is usually bare as well.

Now and then bir comes with -(y)I, when the speaker has one in mind that the listener doesn't know: bir öğrenciyi arıyorum is "I'm looking for a student", one in particular, with a name.

8.5 Definite or not

Whether an object takes -(y)I comes down to one question: does it point to a particular thing? These do, and take the ending:

• something already mentioned, or in front of both speakers: kapıyı açıyor, the door of the room they are in;
• something pointed at with bu, şu or o: bu kitabı;
• a name or a pronoun: Ali'yi, beni, bunu;
• something with a possessive ending, "my" or "your", from the next chapter: kitabımı, "my book";
• a whole kind, loved or liked as a kind: kedileri.

Everything else is bare: some of something, one of many, a kind of thing as an activity.

English "the" is not a safe guide. English says "the" for many things Turkish leaves bare, because the point is the activity and not the thing: reading the paper, doing the dishes.

And it goes the other way. "I love cats" has no "the", but the cats are a whole kind, and Turkish marks them: kedileri seviyorum.

Learners from English most often leave the ending off names and pronouns. Ali'yi tanıyorum and seni seviyorum need it every time.

8.6 The verb at the end

English puts the verb between the subject and the object: "Ali drinks tea". Turkish puts it last: Ali çay içiyor, word for word "Ali tea is-drinking". Subject, object, verb is the plain order of a Turkish sentence.

Everything else comes before the verb as well. A sentence often runs: who, when, where, what, and then the verb.

A bare object stands right before the verb and keeps close to it. Otobüs bekliyor, "is waiting for a bus", holds together almost like one word, and other words go in front of it, not between.

An object with -(y)I can stand further from the verb, since its ending marks it wherever it is.

The verb last is one case of a rule that runs all through Turkish: what describes comes first, and what it describes after. An adjective stands before its noun, as in büyük bir ev, "a big house"; the object, the time and the place stand before the verb.

Since the verb's ending says who, a pronoun as the subject is left out unless it is stressed, most often against someone else:

8.7 Moving words for emphasis

Word order in Turkish is free within limits, and moving a word changes what the sentence stresses. The place for the stressed word is just before the verb. Whatever stands there is the point of the sentence, the part the listener didn't know.

The first answers "What is Ali doing?", the second "Who's reading the book?". Kitabı is the object in both, wherever it stands, because its ending says so. English gets the same effect with the voice, or with "It's ... who".

A correction works the same way: the right word goes just before the verb, and the wrong one before it, with değil, "not".

In speech a word can also come after the verb, as something both speakers already know, added on. Seni seviyorum and seviyorum seni are both "I love you"; the second puts the weight on the loving. Writing mostly keeps the verb last.