Polis can mean the police collectively or one police officer, of any gender. This lesson follows individual officers through case, plural and possessive forms in everyday scenes.
The idea
The stem stays polis: the last vowel i gives polise, polisi and polisler. After voiceless s, the location and source forms are poliste and polisten; s itself does not soften. Possession also expresses association: semtimizin polisi is our district’s officer. With a further dative ending it becomes semtimizin polisine.
| Function | Form |
|---|---|
| Base form: officer | polis |
| Accusative: the officer as object | polisi |
| Dative: to the officer | polise |
| Locative: with the officer | poliste |
| Ablative: from the officer | polisten |
| Genitive: the officer’s | polisin |
| Plural: officers | polisler |
| Possessive: my officer | benim polisim |
| Possessive: your officer (singular) | senin polisin |
| Possessive: his/her officer | onun polisi |
| Possessive: our officer | bizim polisimiz |
| Possessive: your officer (plural/polite) | sizin polisiniz |
| Possessive: their officer(s) | onların polisleri |
| Our officers | polislerimiz |
| To our district’s officer | semtimizin polisine |
Examples
- Polis köşede bekliyor.The officer is waiting at the corner.
- Çocuk polise el salladı.The child waved to the officer.
- Polisler bahçede konuşuyor.The officers are talking in the garden.
- Bu polisi mahalleden tanıyoruz.We know this officer from the neighbourhood.
- Mavi çanta poliste kaldı.The blue bag stayed with the officer.
- Polisten yol tarifi aldık.We got directions from the officer.
- Semtimizin polisi bugün okulumuza geldi.Our district’s officer came to our school today.
- Polisin bisikleti duvarın yanında.The officer’s bicycle is next to the wall.
Read-aloud uses a synthetic Turkish voice available on your device. Voice quality and availability vary; it does not assess your pronunciation.
No Turkish device voice is available. You can still read the text.
Watch out
Count officers with iki polis, not iki polisler: the number already expresses plurality. Also read polisim in context: it can be “my officer”, but Ben polisim means “I am a police officer”; that sentence ending marks the speaker, not possession.
Try it yourself
Complete: the child is waving to the officer. Write only the missing word.
Show answer or example answer
polise
polise: the officer receives the wave, so el sallamak takes the dative here. The final i selects -e, without changing s.
Complete: the blue bag stayed with the officer. Write only the missing word.
Show answer or example answer
poliste
poliste: the bag stayed with the officer; this describes where it remained, not movement towards someone. The voiceless s makes the ending start with t.
Complete: two officers are talking in the garden. Write only the missing word.
Show answer or example answer
polis
polis: iki already counts two people, so adding -ler after the number would be wrong in this phrase.
Complete: we thanked our district’s officer. Write only the missing word.
Show answer or example answer
polisine
polisine: semtimizin makes the officer associated with our district, giving polisi. Thanking that officer requires the dative, with n between the possessive ending and -e.
Practice round
Answer questions, then rebuild Turkish sentences and words where available. We keep your score.
Complete: the child is waving to the officer. Write only the missing word.
Complete: the blue bag stayed with the officer. Write only the missing word.
Complete: two officers are talking in the garden. Write only the missing word.
Complete: we thanked our district’s officer. Write only the missing word.
Tap the words in the right order.
Tap the words in the right order.
Tap the words in the right order.
Keep your progress
Sign up for free to save your practice results in your account.
Sign up to saveI already have an accountUse it today
Write a short scene with two officers. Use iki polis, say whom someone waves to, and say who has a bag. Then add a sentence about your district’s officer.