Expressing Politeness with 'siz' — Turkish Grammar

The pronoun serves two distinct purposes. It is the standard way to address more than one person (the plural "you"), and it is also used to address a single person formally or politely. This is a key distinction for showing respect. The informal singular "you" is .

Using 'siz' for Politeness

When speaking to a single person, using conveys respect, formality, or social distance. This is appropriate in several common situations:

When addressing someone you don't know.
When speaking to someone older than you.
In professional or service environments (e.g., with colleagues, clients, shopkeepers, or officials).
When addressing a person of authority, such as a teacher or a doctor.

Using requires the verb and any possessive suffixes to also be in the 2nd person plural form, even though you are only talking to one person.

Affedersiniz, bu otobüs nereye gidiyor?
Excuse me, where is this bus going? (to a stranger)
Nasılsınız, Ayşe Hanım?
How are you, Ms. Ayşe? (formal address)
Yardımcı olabilir miyim?
May I help you? (in a shop)

Compare these to the informal versions using :

Nasılsın, Ali?
How are you, Ali? (to a friend)
Bunu istiyor musun?
Do you want this? (informal)

Grammatical Forms with 'siz'

When you use for politeness, the entire grammatical structure of the sentence must agree with it. This affects verbs, possessives, and pronoun cases.

Verbs: Verbs take the 2nd person plural ending ///.

Türkçe anlıyor musunuz?
Do you understand Turkish? (formal)
Lütfen yavaş konuşunuz.
Please speak slowly. (formal command)

Possessives: The possessive suffix is ///.

Adınız ne?
What is your name? (formal)
Çantanız çok güzel.
Your bag is very nice. (formal)

Pronoun Cases: The pronoun changes form depending on its role in the sentence.

Size bir soru sorabilir miyim?
May I ask you a question? (dative case, formal)
Sizi sonra arayacağım.
I will call you later. (accusative case, formal)

Using 'siz' for Plural 'You'

In addition to its formal use, is always used when addressing two or more people, regardless of the level of formality. In this context, it simply means "you all".

Çocuklar, ödevlerinizi yaptınız mı?
Children, did you do your homework? (addressing a group)
Arkadaşlar, sinemaya gidelim mi?
Friends, shall we go to the cinema? (addressing a group of friends)
Hepiniz hoş geldiniz.
Welcome, all of you. (addressing a group)

In the course

Sentences from Lingora’s Turkish course

49 of the course's 500 sentences use this, the first in lesson 34. A few of them, with the words “Expressing Politeness with 'siz'” is about in bold:

Çok güzel iki çocuğunuz var. Kaç yaşındalar?
You (pol.) have two very beautiful children. How old are they?
Lesson 264
Bunu fark eden ilk kişi sizsiniz!
You (pol.) are the first person to notice!
Lesson 337

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