Finding out about Each Other

All About Names

Turkish has two words for the first name of a person - isim or ad - and they can both be used at any time as they are interchangeable.

The Turkish word for surname is soyadı - there is no corresponding word for surname based in the word isim

1. İsminiz ne? - What is your first name?
2. İsmim Ayşe. - My name is Ayşe.
3. isim - name - becomes - ism-im - my name. This is one of the nouns that Apocopate (ie: loses an internal vowel) - See note below..

Note that - İsİm - name - is one of the nouns in Turkish which lose an internal vowel when adding a suffix which begins with a vowel itself.

1. Adınız ne? - What is your first name?
2. Adım Ali - My name is Ali.
3.  
4. Soyadınız ne? - What is your surname?
5. Soyadım Karaca - My surname is Karaca

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Finding out about a Third Person

The third person suffix is -i or -ı meaning - his, her, its

1. Onun ismi ne? - What is his name?
2. Onun ismi Mehmet - His name is Mehmet.
3.  
4. Onun adı ne? - What is her name?
5. Onun adı Deren - Her name is Deren.
6.  
7. Onun soyadı ne? - What is his surname?
8. Onun soyadı Gürses - His surname is Gürses.

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Some more Examples

If we are talking about a third person remote from us we may ask the question: What is that man's name?

In this case we must translate the words "man's name" correctly by using the Possessive Relationship to show that the two words belong to each other.

1. adamın ismi - Lit: the name of the man..
2. adamın adı - the man's name
3. adamın soyadı -the man's surname
4.  
5. O Beyefendinin soyadı ne? - What is that gentleman's surname? - Lit: the surname of the man..
6. O Beyefendinin ismi ne? - What is that gentleman's name?

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Making a Conversational Question

If we want to make the sentence more conversational we would normally say : I wonder what that lady's name is?

I wonder.... is simply translated by adding the word - acaba - at the beginning or end of the Turkish question.

1. O Hanımefendinin adı ne, acaba? - I wonder what that lady's name is?
2. Acaba, Mehmed'in soyadı ne? - I wonder what Mehmet's surname is?
3. Kız kardeşinizin ismi ne, acaba? - What is your sister's name, I wonder?