My name is: adım and benim adım

The idea

Turkish says my name with the noun ad plus an ending: adım Elif (literally 'my name Elif'), with no verb and no ending on the name. The ending follows the owner: adım (my), adın (your), adı (his, her), adınız (your, polite). Benim adım Elif adds the owner benim for emphasis. The other way is Ben Elif'im, where the name itself takes the ending -im and ad does not appear. İsim means the same and drops a vowel: ismim, ismin.

Examples

• Adım Murat, memnun oldum.My name is Murat, nice to meet you.Memnun oldum is the usual reply when you meet someone, and the two halves can swap places.
• Merhaba, ben Zeynep'im.Hello, I am Zeynep.Here the name itself takes the person ending -im, so the word adım does not appear. The apostrophe separates the name from the ending.
• Senin adın ne?What is your name?Senin adın is for a friend or a child. With an adult you do not know, say Sizin adınız ne? or just Adınız ne?
• Benim adım Elif.My name is Elif.
• Onun adı Can.His name is Can.O means both he and she, so only the situation tells you whose name it is.
• Annemin adı Fatma.My mother's name is Fatma.Both words are marked: the owner annemin ends in -in, and adı ends in the third-person -ı.
• adımmy namead·ım-im / -ım / -um / -üm / -m: my
• adınızyour name (polite)ad·ınız-ınız / -iniz / -unuz / -ünüz: your (plural, polite)
• adlarımızour namesad·lar-ler / -lar: the plural suffix·ımız-imiz / -ımız / -umuz / -ümüz: our
• Adınız nedir?What is your name? (polite)Nedir is the careful, slightly formal form of ne. You meet it on forms and with strangers.
• Adım Elif, soyadım Kaya.My first name is Elif and my surname is Kaya.Ad alone is the first name. The surname is soyad, built the same way: soyadım.

Watch out

Do not mix the two patterns. Ben adım Elif is not correct, because an owner before a noun stands in the genitive, benim. And Adım Elif'im adds a second 'I am' to a name that is already the answer. Say Benim adım Elif or Ben Elif'im, never both at once.

Try it yourself

1. Fill in the blank: My name is Ece.

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   adım

   adım: benim means 'of me', so the noun after it must carry the matching ending, ad + -ım, where the back vowel a gives ı.

2. Fill in the blank: What is your name?

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   adın

   adın: senin needs the second-person ending -ın, and the back vowel a of ad gives ı; the d does not change.

3. Fill in the blank: My mother's name is Fatma.

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   adı

   adı: the owner annemin already carries the genitive, and the word for name takes the third-person -ı, the same for 'his' and 'her'.

4. Add the ending: I am Zeynep.

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   Zeynep'im

   Zeynep'im: with ben the name itself takes the person ending, -im after the front vowel e, and an apostrophe separates it from the proper name. adım is not needed.

Use it today

Introduce yourself in two ways, with adım and with Ben Elif'im, then write the question you would ask a child and the one you would ask an adult.