# Sizlere ömür.



## dattse

Merhaba,

I was talking to a Turkish acquaintance and asked him about his mother. I _think_ he replied, "Sizlere ömür." but I'm not sure because I have difficulty distinguishing between the different sounds of Turkish, especially when spoken fast. What does "Sizlere ömür." mean?

Thanks!


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## shafaq

You have  heard correct. 
"Sizlere ömür" means "s/he passed away" metaphorically. 
Literally it means "(I wish God) may give you (long) lifetime."


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## dattse

That's really strange. Why would he add "ler" to "siz"? It's already plural, because its singular is "sen".


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## shafaq

It is a Turkish practice in the sake of politeness. 
In this practice "siz" means "sen=you (singular)". This looks like the disappearing of singular "you" in English.


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## dattse

Teşekkür ederim.


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## Cagsak

dattse said:


> That's really strange. Why would he add "ler" to "siz"? It's already plural, because its singular is "sen".


You can also add the plural suffixes to "Biz". As you know "Biz" means "we/us", but you can say "Bizler"
For example;
Bizleri ayıran yıllar = The years that separated us.
You can assume that there is more than one "biz" group. That is the same for "sizler"


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## dattse

Thanks, but the problem is that there was _not_ more than one of me! I was the only person addressing him. Why did he use _-ler_?


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## Cagsak

dattse said:


> Thanks, but the problem is that there was _not_ more than one of me! I was the only person addressing him. Why did he use _-ler_?


Because we never say "sana ömür"  we wish a long life for everyone when we say "sizlere ömür"


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## Nabalab

I think in this sentence sizlere doesn't only mean the listener. But also his/her family or the people he likes

normally water is uncountable but in Turkey we say " sular kesildi" 
Not for one house but for all houses


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