The door of the house: the izafet and the -in … -i chain
English marks possession once, on the owner: 'the door of the house', 'the house's door'. Turkish marks both words: the owner takes -in, the thing takes -i. ev-in kapı-sı — the door of the house. Skipping the second tail is not allowed: 'evin kapı' means nothing. For example: “Evin kapısı açık kalmış” — The door of the house was left open. A rule from the Turkish course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a…
How it works
English marks possession once, on the owner: 'the door of the house', 'the house's door'. Turkish marks both words: the owner takes -in, the thing takes -i. ev-in kapı-sı — the door of the house. Skipping the second tail is not allowed: 'evin kapı' means nothing.
But the more common form is the short one — only -i, with no tail on the first word. That is not carelessness; it is a different meaning. bahçe kapısı is a garden door, the kind of thing; bahçenin kapısı is the door of this particular garden. The first answers 'what kind?', the second 'whose?'. English compounds do the same job: a car door versus the door of the car. Hence otobüs durağı — bus stop, telefon numarası — phone number, diş fırçası — toothbrush: everywhere a breed of thing is named, not an owner.
With pronouns the same rule runs: benim evim, senin evin, onun evi. The tail on the thing is obligatory, while benim can be dropped — evim already means 'my house'. Learners usually do the reverse: they say benim ev, and that is the single most common first-year mistake.
The links can be strung out: evin kapısının anahtarı — the key to the door of the house. Every link but the last takes -in; every link but the first takes -i. Signs are assembled the same way: Türk Hava Yolları — 'Turkish air lines', where only the last word takes the tail, because the first two describe the breed, not an owner.
Table
| the kind of link | example | what it means |
|---|---|---|
| only -ı on the thing | bahçe kapısı | a garden door — the breed of thing |
| -in on the owner and -ı on the thing | bahçenin kapısı | the door of this garden — possession |
| a pronoun | benim evim | my house; benim can drop, evim cannot |
| a chain | evin kapısının anahtarı | the key to the door of the house |
By example
- Evin kapısı açık kalmışThe door of the house was left open
- Komşunun çocukları bahçede oynuyorThe neighbor's children are playing in the garden
- Telefonumun şarjı bittiMy phone has run out of charge
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
Bahçe kapısı vs bahçenin kapısı?
English marks possession once, on the owner: 'the door of the house', 'the house's door'. Turkish marks both words: the owner takes -in, the thing takes -i. ev-in kapı-sı — the door of the house. Skipping the second tail is not allowed: 'evin kapı' means nothing.
What the Turkish izafet is?
But the more common form is the short one — only -i, with no tail on the first word. That is not carelessness; it is a different meaning. bahçe kapısı is a garden door, the kind of thing; bahçenin kapısı is the door of this particular garden. The first answers 'what kind?', the second 'whose?'.…
Why benim ev is a mistake?
With pronouns the same rule runs: benim evim, senin evin, onun evi. The tail on the thing is obligatory, while benim can be dropped — evim already means 'my house'. Learners usually do the reverse: they say benim ev, and that is the single most common first-year mistake.
How to say the door of the house in Turkish?
The links can be strung out: evin kapısının anahtarı — the key to the door of the house. Every link but the last takes -in; every link but the first takes -i. Signs are assembled the same way: Türk Hava Yolları — 'Turkish air lines', where only the last word takes the tail, because the first two…
What does it look like in an example sentence Turkish?
“Evin kapısı açık kalmış” — The door of the house was left open. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.