# He is reading a book



## MarkOxford

Greetings!

I am interested in how pronouns can be dropped from Turkish sentences, esp. in the third person singular. For instance, are the sentences in (1) correct with and without the pronoun?

1a: [Ben] kitap okuyorum.

1b: [Sen] kitap okuyorsun.

1c: [O] kitap okuyor.

I find 1c particularly interesting because there’s no personal suffix for the third person (or rather, the suffix is phonetically null). Is it still possible/natural to drop ‘O’? If it’s not possible in this particular sentence, are there examples where you can drop ‘o’?

Thanks a lot!


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## shafaq

"Okuyor" already means "he is reading"; nothing than this.

All your three sentences are correct and natural with or without pronouns.


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## MarkOxford

Thanks, shafaq!

Not that I doubt the first answer, but perhaps one or two others could confirm that this intuition is universal? Thanks!


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## RimeoftheAncientMariner

MarkOxford said:


> Thanks, shafaq!
> 
> Not that I doubt the first answer, but perhaps one or two others could confirm that this intuition is universal? Thanks!


On my behalf, I do confirm, Sir.


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## MarkOxford

Thanks a lot! That's very useful!


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## VolkanG

As in Spanish, subject pronouns are superfluous unless used for emphasis or unless otherwise there will be an ambiguity. In fact, superfluous use of subject pronouns is one of the first things that gives the non-native speakers away. Not grammatically incorrect but superfluous.


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## MarkOxford

Thanks! I wasn’t sure about the third person because most of the examples I found in the literature are first- or second-person. Finnish for instance also allows dropping the pronoun, but only in the first and second person – so I wondered whether Turkish may be like Finnish in this respect (but I understand now that it’s not).


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## VolkanG

Actually first person pronoun is used more often than others but unnecessary emphasis should be avoided, so it may depend on each specific case. For example:
- You announce that you just arrived (eg. at home): "Ben geldim!" Here you emphasize that it is you, not somebody else (to another person in the house who didn't see you yet)
- Your response when somebody summons you (in the same vicinity): "Geldim."
If you use "Ben" here it will sound very strange because the summoner already knows that he summoned you.


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