Cümlesi

Cümlesi is the third-person singular possessive form of the Turkish noun cümle, meaning sentence. It literally translates as “its sentence” and is used to refer to a sentence that belongs to or is associated with a subject mentioned in the discourse. Turkish expresses possession by attaching suffixes to the possessed noun; the suffix -si marks third-person possession. When the possessor is made explicit by another noun in the genitive case, a phrase such as mektubun cümlesi (the sentence of the letter) is formed.

In usage, cümlesi commonly appears in noun phrases that indicate ownership or association. Examples include Onun cümlesi doğru (His/Her/Its sentence is correct) and Mektubun cümlesi uzun (The sentence of the letter is long). In these constructions, the head noun cümle is accompanied by the possessive suffix -si to indicate possession, while the owner is expressed elsewhere in the sentence, often in genitive form.

Etymology and morphology: cümle derives from the Turkish adaptation of the Arabic/Persian jumla, meaning “sentence” or “clause.” The possessive suffix -si is a standard Turkish marker for third-person possession and, together with vowel harmony, yields cümlesi from cümle. Turkish likewise forms other person-specific possessives from the same root (for example, cümlem for “my sentence,” though actual spellings vary with surrounding vowels). Cümlesi thus illustrates Turkish morphology’s clear separation of possessed nouns and possessors within noun phrases.