# Evi / Evleri



## Xander2024

Hello everyone,

could someone please tell me if I'm right about some Turkish word-forms that have multiple meaning, for example "evleri" that means "their house". But as far as I understand, it can also mean "his/her houses" or "their houses" and even "(the) houses" in the Accusative - "Evleri görüyorum" - "I see (the) houses". Can the underlined sentence thus have other meanings, for example, "I see his/her/their houses"?  


Thanks in advance.


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## Rallino

> could someone please tell me if I'm right about some Turkish word-forms  that have multiple meaning, for example "evleri" that means "their  house". But as far as I understand, it can also mean "his/her houses" or  "their houses" and even "(the) houses" in the Accusative - "Evleri görüyorum" - "I see (the) houses".


Yes, in case of ambiguity, you can use the possessive adjectives: _onun evleri / onların evi_ _/ onların evleri_


> […] "Evleri görüyorum" - "I see (the) houses". Can the underlined sentence thus have other meanings, for example, "I see his/her/their houses"?


Nope, you would need accusative for that: _(Onların) evleri*ni* görüyorum_.


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## Xander2024

And what might "onların evi" mean if _their house(s)_ would be "onların evleri" anyway?


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## Rallino

We had discussed this in a recent thread - it was in Turkish, though. 

3rd person plural is a bit ambiguous. I presume you're aware that we can omit the possessive adjectives _benim evim_ vs. _evim._ There is no misunderstanding here.
_Evi_ can technically mean _his house / their house_; _Evleri_ - _his houses/their house/ their houses_. You're correct about that.
However, when you say _evi_, it's almost always understood as _his house_, and when you say _evleri_, the first thing that comes to a native's mind is _their house_.

If the context doesn't make it clear, and you absolutely need to be precise, you can opt for using the possessive adjectives for 3rd person:
Onun evi - His house
Onun evleri - His houses
Onların evi - Their house
Onların evleri - Their houses


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## Esoppe

Yes, the suffix -i has more than one grammatical functions in Turkish. And it creates double/triple-meanings in some cases, especially because the possession suffixes have in them the suffix we use to create plural words.

His/her house= ev-i = Evi
His/her houses= ev-ler-i = Evleri (in this case, -ler is the plural suffix)
Their house= ev-ler-i = Evleri (in this case, -ler is part of the possession suffix of the third person plural)
Their houses= ev-ler-i = Evleri (I think -ler is the possession suffix of the third person plural again; but because [for some reason] a word cannot take two "-ler"s or another plurality indicator, there is no way to indicate that there are more than one houses and more than one people) (edit: ah, apart from using pronouns of course)

In the above examples the -i is always a possession suffix. In "Evleri görüyorum" it is the accusative suffix.

"Evleri görüyorum" translates only to "I can see the houses".

For the his/her/their meaning, you need a second -i which acts as the possesion suffix: Evleri + (n)i -> Evlerini (the "n" acts as a 'melding' sound that bridges two wovels)


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## Xander2024

Thanks a lot for the explanation, Rallino. What you've said is a bit different from what my primer says regarding the noun ending with "onların". It doesn't have the "Onların evi" combination. 

PS Sorry to say, it's too early for me to read threads in Turkish as I'm just making my first steps in learning this language.


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## Xander2024

Esoppe said:


> "Evleri görüyorum" translates only to "I can see the houses".



That's what my primer says too, Esoppe.

Thank you.


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