tekil

Tekil is a term used in Turkish grammar to designate the singular number, referring to a single entity. It is contrasted with çoğul, which denotes more than one. The concept of tekil is used to categorize nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and other determiners when describing their number in linguistic descriptions and dictionaries.

Etymology and usage context: Tekil derives from the Turkish word tek, meaning single or one. In grammar literature, tekil is employed as a label to distinguish singular forms from plural forms. While Turkish nouns generally have a single form in the singular and add -ler/-lar to express plurality, the term tekil helps scholars and learners discuss number-related properties of words and phrases.

Applications and examples: Tekil is commonly applied to nouns and pronouns to indicate singular reference. For instance, in Turkish, kedinin rengi güzel says a sentence about a single cat, where kedı tekil bir isimdir (the noun kedı is singular). In contrast, kediler avcıdır uses the plural form kediler. Similarly, tekil zamir örneği includes ben (I) as a singular pronoun, while biz represents a plural pronoun. These distinctions aid in describing how Turkish treats number in different parts of speech, even though verb morphology in Turkish often marks person and, in some cases, number.

See also: Turkish grammar, plurality, singular, number.