Tiyatro: theatre, cases and possession

The idea

The stem tiyatro stays intact: tiyatroyu marks a specific object and tiyatroya a destination. Possession gives tiyatrom, tiyatromuz and tiyatrosu. Compare tiyatroyu with tiyatrosunu: the latter keeps the possessive -su and adds -n-u. The same link appears in çocuk tiyatrosunda, “at the children’s theatre”. The plural is tiyatrolar, and “our theatres” is tiyatrolarımız.

Examples

• Bu tiyatroya yarın gideceğiz.We will go to this theatre tomorrow.
• Bu tiyatroyu herkes tanıyor.Everyone knows this theatre.
• Bizim tiyatromuz bu ay kapalı.Our theatre is closed this month.
• Tiyatronun girişinde küçük bir kafe var.There is a small café at the entrance to the theatre.
• Dün tiyatrodan çıkınca uzun süre oyun hakkında konuştuk.Yesterday, after leaving the theatre, we talked about the play for a long time.
• Bu şehirde iki bağımsız tiyatro var.There are two independent theatres in this city.
• Çocuk tiyatrosunda yeni bir oyun sahneleniyor.A new play is being staged at the children’s theatre.
• Dernek, kendi tiyatrosunu geçen yıl açtı.The association opened its own theatre last year.
• Tiyatrolarımız bu yıl ortak bir festival düzenliyor.Our theatres are organising a joint festival this year.

Watch out

Do not replace tiyatrosunu with tiyatroyu when the sentence says whose theatre it is: you would lose the possessive meaning. Also, for an individual stage work, oyun or tiyatro oyunu is more precise; iki tiyatro in the example counts theatres, not two plays.

Try it yourself

1. Complete: everyone knows this theatre.

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   tiyatroyu

   tiyatroyu: bu identifies the theatre that everyone knows, so the noun is a specific direct object. The ending joins to the final o with y, and its vowel is u.

2. Complete: the association opened its own theatre.

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   tiyatrosunu

   tiyatrosunu: the theatre belongs to the association. Start with tiyatrosu and then mark it as the object of açtı, adding -nu; kendi reinforces that it is its own theatre.

3. Write “our theatres” as one word.

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   tiyatrolarımız

   tiyatrolarımız: first make several theatres with -lar, then add “our”. The last vowel is now a, so the possessive contains dotless ı: -ımız, not -umuz.

4. Complete: we will go to the theatre tomorrow.

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   tiyatroya

   tiyatroya: the theatre is where we will go, so the destination form is needed. Tiyatroda would locate an action at the theatre instead.

Use it today

Imagine an association opening a theatre. Write one sentence about going there, one about its own theatre as an object, and one about several theatres working together. Check what each ending contributes.