Jobs and professions: from öğretmen to gazeteci

The idea

A job word is a plain noun with no gender: doktor can be a man or a woman. To say what you are, add the personal ending straight to it: doktorum, hemşireyim, gazetecisin. There is no word for “a” here, so bir appears only with an adjective: iyi bir aşçı. In the third person nothing is added: Ablam hemşire. Many job words end in -ci or -çı: gazeteci, aşçı.

Examples

• Ben okulda öğretmenim.I am a teacher at the school.The job word takes the personal ending directly: öğretmen + im. There is no word for “a” here, and ben may be dropped: Okulda öğretmenim.
• Ablam hastanede hemşire.My older sister is a nurse at the hospital.In the third person the job word stands alone: no ending and no verb “is”. Hemşire is used for women and men alike.
• Babam şoför, annem avukat.My father is a driver and my mother is a lawyer.
• Ne iş yapıyorsun?What do you do for work?İş means work or job. Plain Ne yapıyorsun? asks what you are doing right now, not what you do for a living.
• doktorumI am a doctordoktor·um-im / -sin / -iz / -siniz: I am, you are, we are
• hemşireyimI am a nursehemşire·yBuffer -y-: the y that joins vowels·im-im / -sin / -iz / -siniz: I am, you are, we are
• gazetecijournalistgazete·ci-ci / -cı / -çi / -çı: the person who does it
• Teyzem iyi bir aşçı.My aunt is a good cook.Bir appears here because an adjective, iyi, describes the person. Without an adjective, Teyzem aşçı is the normal form.
• Babanız mühendis mi?Is your father an engineer?

Watch out

To ask about a job, say Ne iş yapıyorsun? Plain Ne yapıyorsun? means “What are you doing right now?”, and a natural answer would be Kitap okuyorum, not Doktorum.

Try it yourself

1. Say “I am a doctor” in one word: doktor plus the ending for I.

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   doktorum

   doktorum: doktor ends in a consonant and its last vowel o is back and rounded, so the ending for “I” is -um.

2. Say “I am a nurse” in one word: hemşire plus the ending for I. The word ends in a vowel.

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   hemşireyim

   hemşireyim: hemşire ends in a vowel, so the buffer letter y goes between the word and -im.

3. Say “you are a journalist” (one person, informal) in one word: gazeteci plus the ending for you.

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   gazetecisin

   gazetecisin: -sin starts with a consonant, so no buffer is needed after the vowel i, and the front vowel i gives -sin, not -sun.

4. Fill the gap to ask “What do you do for work?”

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   iş

   iş: the word means work, so Ne iş yapıyorsun? asks about your job, while Ne yapıyorsun? asks about what you are doing now.

Use it today

Write one short sentence each about what you, two relatives and a friend do for work. Check the ending against the person.