Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

masa örtü-sü ‘tablecloth’
çay bardağ-ı ‘tea glass’
çocuk bahçe-si ‘children’s playground’
The plural of a -(s)I compound is formed by attaching the 3rd person possessive suffix (in
this case always -I) to the plural form of the second noun:
otobüs biletler-i ‘bus tickets’
el çantalar-ı ‘handbags’
çay bardaklar-ı ‘tea glasses’
In the case of -(s)I compounds that are written as one word, there is some variation in
how the plural is formed. In most such words the plural suffix precedes the possessive
suffix, just as in the separately written compounds:
buzdolap-lar-ı ‘refrigerators’
yayınev-ler-i ‘publishing houses’
There are a few cases, however, where the possessive suffix is treated as an integral part
of the word, and the plural suffix follows it:
ayakkabı-lar ‘shoes’
Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 96
yüzbaşı-lar ‘(army) captains’
binbaşı-lar ‘(army) majors’
In a very small number of cases the plural can be formed either way:
kasımpatı-lar/kasımpat-lar-ı ‘chrysanthemums’
The function of the 3rd person possessive suffix (8.1.2) in -(s)I compounds is not to
signify possession of one thing by another. It simply serves as a grammatical indicator of
the compounding of the noun to which it is affixed with the immediately preceding noun.
A particular function of -(s)I compounds is to unite the particular names of
topographical features, institutions and geopolitical entities with the noun denoting the
category of item in question:
Ağrı Dağ-ı ‘Mount Ararat’
Van Göl-ü ‘Lake Van’
Efes Lokanta-sı ‘Ephesus Restaurant’
Türkiye Cumhuriyet-i ‘Republic of Turkey’
A similar usage is seen in time expressions in which a date or the name of a day or month
is compounded with the noun denoting the unit of time in question (see 16.4.1.1):