Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 250
bir şey ‘something’, ‘anything’ can be used in the singular or in the plural form (14.3.1.1
(iii)), with both affirmative and negative predicates:
(129) Şu sıralar ilginç bir şey/bir şeyler okumuyor musun?
‘Aren’t you reading anything interesting these days?’
(130) Söyleyecek bir şeyim yok
‘I have nothing to say.’
(131) Sabahtan beri bir şey-ler-im-i arıyorum ama bulamıyorum.
something-PL-1SG.POSS-ACC
‘I’ve been looking for some things of mine all day.’
The expressions kimse ‘no one’, ‘anyone’, hiç kimse ‘no one’, hiçbiri(si) ‘none (of
them)’, hiçbir şey ‘nothing’ are discussed in 20.5.
18.6.2 insan ‘ONE’
İnsan ‘person, human being’ is used pronominally like the English generic pronoun
‘one’:
(132) İnsan bazen [hiçbir şey bilmediğin]-i sanıyor.
‘Sometimes one thinks [one doesn’t know anything].’
(133) Bazı günler her şey zor geliyor insana.
‘Some days everything seems to be difficult (for one).’
18.6.3 şey
şey, literally ‘thing’, is probably one of the most commonly used expressions in
colloquial Turkish, replacing anything from a word to a whole clause. It is used where the
speaker cannot immediately call to mind the appropriate expression for what s/he intends
to say. What it replaces may or may not follow in the conversation, depending on
whether its referent is clear enough from the context.
(134) Ay arabanın şeyini kırmışlar!
‘Oh God, they’ve broken the car’s thingumajig!’
(135) Şey gibi olmasın ama, sana bir şey sormak istiyorum.
‘I would like to ask you something, without sounding as if… you know…’
(136) Ziya’nın lafları biraz şeysiz kaçtı.
‘Ziya’s words lacked a bit of, how shall I put it…’
It can also be used as a ‘filler’ between sentences, or as a gradual start to a conversation,
sometimes as a means of introducing a topic that the speaker finds difficult or
embarrassing to broach.
(137) Şey…Biraz konuşmamız lazım.
‘Uhmmm…we have to talk a bit.’