What is KENDİ in Turkish?
Kendi in Turkish is often translated as self: myself, yourself, herself, himself, himself, themselves. This word can be used alone or with possessive and case suffixes.
In Which Situations Is It Used?
1. It makes the sentence reflexive. That is, the subject applies the verb to itself.
⇒Ben, kendimi seviyorum.
(I love myself.)
⇒Sen, kendine hiç değer vermiyorsun
(You don’t value yourself at all?
⇒İnsan kendisinden nefret eder mi?
(Does human hate himself?)
⇒O kendisinden nefret ediyormuş.
(S/he hate her/himself.)
2. We use instead of pronouns.
⇒Kendisi (o) bize açık açık anlattı.
(S/he told us frankly.)
⇒Kendisi (o) nereye gitti?
(Where did s/he go?)
⇒Kendiniz (siz) neden bir şey demediniz?
(Why didn’t you say anything yourself?)
⇒Kendileri (onlar) bu konuda çok katılar.
(They are very strict about it.)
3. It is used right after the pronoun to emphasize the pronoun.
⇒Sen kendin istemezsen hiç kimse sana karışamaz.
(No one can interfere with you if you don’t want to.)
⇒Biz kendimiz istiyoruz ama.
(But we want it.)
⇒Unutma! Bu senin kendi hayatın.
(Don’t forget! This is your own life.)
⇒Ben kendim bile bunu sana yapamam.
(I cannot do this to you.)
4. It is used to indicate that the verb is done by itself, alone, without assistance. This can be of two types. First; It is done by using the kendi twice. Second; It is done by using the kendi right after the pronoun.
⇒Yemeği ben kendim yaptım.
(I made the food by myself.)
⇒Sabahtan beri kendi kendine konuşuyor.
(He has been talking to himself since morning.)
⇒Kendi kendime Türkçeyi öğrendim.
(I learned Turkish by myself.)
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