Üydiñ esigi and äzhemniñ nemeresi: chains of possession
To say the door of the neighbour's house, Kazakh builds a chain, and every word in it carries two tails. For example: “Көршінің үйінің қақпасы жабық” — The gates of the neighbor's house are closed. A rule from the Kazakh course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
To say the door of the neighbour's house, Kazakh builds a chain, and every word in it carries two tails.
Start with two words. The owner takes -nyñ, -dyñ or -tyñ, the tail that means whose. The thing owned takes -y or -i, the tail that means his. So äjeniñ üyi is grandmother's house.
Now lengthen it: körshiniñ üyiniñ esigi, the door of the neighbour's house. Every link except the last carries both tails at once.
The trap is the middle link, and almost everybody drops it. Say körshiniñ üy esigi and a Kazakh ear catches it at once.
Table
| The owner ends in | The whose-tail | Example | With the owned thing |
|---|---|---|---|
| a vowel | -nyñ / -niñ | äje → äjeniñ | äjeniñ üyi |
| a voiced or sonorant consonant | -dyñ / -diñ | ul → uldyñ | uldyñ oiynşyğy |
| a voiceless consonant | -tyñ / -tiñ | mektep → mekteptiñ | mekteptiñ aulasy |
| "m, n, ñ" | -nyñ / -niñ | apam → apamnyñ | apamnyñ saqynasy |
| men, sen, ol | meniñ, seniñ, onyñ | — special forms | meniñ äkem |
By example
- Көршінің үйінің қақпасы жабықThe gates of the neighbor's house are closed
- Әжемнің немересі мектепке барадыMy grandmother's grandson goes to school
- Пошта жәшігінің кілті жоғалдыThe key to the mailbox got lost
How the rule settles in your head
A rule is not memorized from an explanation. It is memorized from an attempt to use it and a mistake — that is why the app delivers it mixed in with words, not as a separate lesson: it resurfaces exactly where you forgot it.
Frequently asked
The Kazakh izafet chain of possession?
To say the door of the neighbour's house, Kazakh builds a chain, and every word in it carries two tails.
Üydiñ esigi or üy esigi: the Kazakh chain?
Start with two words. The owner takes -nyñ, -dyñ or -tyñ, the tail that means whose. The thing owned takes -y or -i, the tail that means his. So äjeniñ üyi is grandmother's house.
Why Kazakh puts two endings in a row?
Now lengthen it: körshiniñ üyiniñ esigi, the door of the neighbour's house. Every link except the last carries both tails at once.
Äkem or meniñ äkem: which is right?
The trap is the middle link, and almost everybody drops it. Say körshiniñ üy esigi and a Kazakh ear catches it at once.
How to say the door of the neighbour house in Kazakh?
The trap is the middle link, and almost everybody drops it. Say körshiniñ üy esigi and a Kazakh ear catches it at once.
What does it look like in an example sentence Kazakh?
“Көршінің үйінің қақпасы жабық” — The gates of the neighbor's house are closed. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.