Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

neli, nesiz
ne can combine with the suffixes -lI ‘with’ and -sIz ‘without’ (15.2.1) to form adjectives:
(51) Ne-li dondurma sev-er-sin?
what-ADJ ice.cream like-AOR-2SG
‘What kind of ice cream do you like?’
It can also combine with the suffix -CI (7.2.2.2), most typically in its occupational sense,
and much less commonly as denoting an ideology:
(52) Baba-sı ne-ci?
father-3SG.POSS what-DER
‘What is the occupation/ideology of his/her father?’
nesi, neyi
nesi is the more commonly used 3rd person possessive form of ne, and neyi (6.2 (iii)) is
slightly dated:
(53) Akdeniz-in ne-si/ ney-i insanları çekiyor?
Mediterranean-GEN what-3SG.POSS
‘What is it about the Mediterranean that attracts people?’
ne and the idiom ne biçim ‘what kind of…’ can also be use in exclamations (12.4 (iv)).
19.2.1.3 nere- ‘where’
The word nere- is used in its bare form only in non-standard dialects of Turkish. In
standard Turkish it is always inflected. Nere- occurs in the positions occupied by noun
phrases (Chapter 23), and it can combine with all the inflectional suffixes that attach to
nouns (8.1, 14.3):
(54) Elbise-ler-in-i nere-den al-dı-n? (usually pronounced [ ])
clothes-PL-2SG.POSS-ACC where-ABL buy-PF-2SG
‘Where did you buy your clothes from?’
(55) En çok nere-ler-i görmek istiyorsun?
where-PL-ACC
‘What places do you most want to see?’
(56) İğne-yi nere-n-den yap-acak-lar?
injection-ACC where-2SG.POSS-ABL make-FUT-3PL
‘On what part of you? (lit. ‘Where on you?’) are they going to do the injection?’
nerede, neresi
nerede (usually pronounced [ ]) is used when inquiring about the location of a
person or object:
(57) Patagonya nere-de?
where-LOC
Questions 261