# Use of the Genitive case



## sufler

Hello!
I have two questions concerning the Genitive case in Turkish. Well, in my native language - Polish, we add the genitive ending to the noun that is the owner of the other noun. For example the phrase _"cat's eyes/eyes of the cat"_ would be _oczy kota (oczy= eyes, kot = cat)_, and the genitive ending is added to the owner - cat. Whereas, in Turkish I saw construction _Kedi gözlerin__,_ and the ending _-in _seems to be added to the noun being owned (eyes). I thought it should be _eyes (of what?) of the cat - __Kedinin gözleri__, _with the genitive ending by the _"cat"_. Doesn't it goes like this in Turkish?

And my second question is about the phrase I saw in the internet _"opponents of war" - Savaş karşıtları. _The ending -i is typical for the Accusative case. So again, the phrase is _opponents (of what?) of war, _so shouldn't there be Genitive ending -ın instead of -ı, _Savaş karşıtların _or _Savaş__ın__ karşıtlar_?? (I give two versions, because I don't know which is better reffering to the previous question).


----------



## snoopymanatee

Hello sufler,

For your first question; In Turkish we do the same. 

"_Cat'*s* eyes/Eyes of the cat_" --> "_Kedi*nin* gözleri_"

"*Kedi gözlerin*" does not mean "_cat's eyes"_, it means "*your cat eyes*", here; the eyes of a person in question is compared to the eyes of a cat.


For your second question; you are on the right path.

If we translate "_opponents of war_" into Turkish literally, we should say "_savaşın karşıtları_". 

But if someone says so, I ask "*Which war?*" I understand that he/she is talking about a specific war, like "World War I" or "World War II", 

when someone says "_*Savaş karşıtları.*_" I understand that he/she is a "*opponent of all wars*" not a specific one.


----------



## sufler

Thank you, but I still don't get the second example  I thought the genitive ending _-ın _has the same function as _"of" _in English, _opponent of war _- _savaşın karşıtları_. But in the second example the _-ın _suffix is gone, so where's the genitive clause "of"?

And what is exactly the role of the _-i _ending added to _karşıtlar_ in this case? It marks the accusative case or something else?


----------



## Black4blue

No it doesn't make accusative. It's different. Well, my English is not enough to explain it.

There are four types of subordinative conjuctions. 
In one type, non of the words take any suffix.
In another type, one of the words takes. *.... And what you're asking is in this type. *
In another type, both of the words take.
The last one is made by more than two words. Like combines of those three.


----------



## sufler

Ok, I've got another troublesome sentence, _Hepimizin çocukluğu mutsuzluk içinde geçti_. On a website they translated it as _All of our childhood passed in unhappiness _(what I consider to be a synonym of _Our *whole* childhood..._) . But again, I can't understand why the genitive suffix _-__in _is added to word _"hep"_ (all) instead of "childhood"? For me the sentence would mean rather _The childhood of everyone/all of us passed in unhappiness_. Am I wrong again?


----------



## Rallino

That's right. I wouldn't translate it that way either.

Hepimizin çocukluğu = The childhood of everyone of us.

_All of our childhood_ would be _Tüm çocukluğumuz_.


----------



## lesgles

There are two suffixes at work here. The *genitive* suffix goes on the possessor (like in English and Polish), and the *possessive* suffix (no equivalent in Polish) goes on the thing possessed. Sometimes the forms of the suffixes can be similar.

öğrenci*nin* bilgisayar*ı* = the student's computer
(ben*im*) arkadaş*ımın *araba*sı *= my friend's car
savaş*ın *karşıtlar*ı *= the opponents of the (specific) war

The possessive suffix (but not the genitive suffix) is used to form compound nouns. The relation between the two words is more general.
cep telefon*u *= mobile (pocket) telephone
araç aküs*ü* = vehicle battery
çiftlik ev*i*
savaş karşıtlar*ı* = war opponents, that is, the opponents of war in general, not one specific war

Sometimes, however, nouns can be joined without any suffix, as Black4blue notes. The first noun in these is acting more like an adjective. They are rarer, and I think you just have to learn specific cases.

kız kardeş
Türkçe sözlük

See http://www.turkishlanguage.co.uk/possessiverelationship.htm for more information.


----------

