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Grammar reason why it's not "Ben seni gibiyim"? Is it perhaps because the structure is more like "I have your likeness"? Thanks, friends, for the help! Arkadaşlar, yardım için teşekkürler!
Interesting idea. But it's "I am", not "I have". So… I don't know…
There are some words that can be easily be used with normal nouns, but require the possessive forms when used with subject pronouns:
Araba gibi - like a car, but Senin gibi - like you.
The suffix "-(y)le" (with) is the same:
Arabayla - with the car, but Seninle - with you.
It's just a special rule.
Thanks! I'll just remember that those pronouns sometimes take endings where regular nouns don't, just like in English. In English, pronouns are the only words nowadays that change endings depending on their case (other than possessive). To the house, from the house, of the house, the house. To him, from him, of his, he.
I think since "senin" is genitive, the literal meaning would be something like "I am of your likeness."
But gibi has no possessive (one would expect it to be: senin gibin)... So I'm not too sure if we can analyze it that way
Why not 'I like you'? I think the translation hint should provide different translation.
The last word "gibi" means like and has the 1st person personal ending on it :) It is not the verb "to like," which is "beğenmek."
'I like you.' means 'I love you.' = 'Seni seviyorum.' But 'I'm like you.' means 'I'm similar with you.' = 'Sana benziyorum.'
I'm having the hardest time with gibi constructions :-/ Having some notes on this would be helpful.
"Ben senin gibiyim." Translation: I am like you.
"Ne senden fazlayım Ne senden az Aynı macerada ayrı biraz." - I am the same as you.
743
Is "Senin gibi benim" equivalent/correct? Because I have encountered other cases/questions in this course, where the phrase with "gibi" is preceding the noun which the comparison describes - much like an adjective.
Hello JrgenZirak
"Ben senin gibiyim." Translation: I am like you.
"Senin gibi benim" - Like you I am. Do you agree on my translation of your answer? Gibi - (adjective) & (adverb) Benim - (Pronoun) My, mine, of mine (genitive of ben).
Your word order is a bit muddled: Subject - object - verb.
I cannot explain this any further for you & has Duo accepted your answer? Kind regards & have a very Happy New Year.
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Thank you for your answer and a Happy New Year to you as well. I haven't had the opportunity to test "Senin gibi benim" yet - I hadn't tried it when I posted that comment. It's just that shortly before I had stumbled across ""Duo gibi kuş, İstanbul gibi ev yok!", where the "* gibi" phrases were preceding the nouns they describe. I guess it is the final verb "yok" that makes the difference in that case. In my suggestion there is no verb (unless you count the implicit "to be" corresponding to the "-im" suffix). So without the explicit verb it would seem more natural to consider the "senin gibi" a predicate/object and not an adjective phrase - and hence put it after the subject. Am I right?
JrgenZirak
Good morning to you & some examples for you to see.
Postpositions - topic:
“Elma gibi bir meyve” - A fruit like an apple.
“Duo gibi kuş, İstanbul gibi ev yok” - There is no bird like Duo, no home like Istanbul.
Yüzüme bakti, gözlerime, ama senin gibi değil.
Hiç kimse senin gibi, canımdan öte can değil.
(Adverb) - değil
Not (negates meaning of verb "to be") Mutlu olabilirsin, ama ben değilim. You may be happy, but I am not.
Evli değil misiniz? Aren't you married?
(Noun) - değil (definite accusative değili, plural değiller)
Gibi does go after the (noun)
canımdan - (noun) - my life.
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Hello MrHilmiNevzat,
Thanks a lot for taking the effort and posting all those examples. My main point originally was the slight confusion about the Turkish word order when translating something like "... is like ", but as posted before I think I more or less get it now.
In one case it is "A(=noun phrase or pronoun) is like X", with a clear subject and object , which translate to "A X gibi(+person suffix)".
On the other hand we have "There is a/no A like X", where I'm actually not quite clear what the subject is in the English sentence, at least the A alone does not play the role of a normal subject. In Turkish that is expressed more like the English "An A like X exists/does not exist" - Or even "An X-like A exists/does not exist" (although the latter sounds a bit unnatural). So the "like X" isn't an object, but a descriptive, adjective-like phrase, which goes first in Turkish: "X gibi A var".
The cause of my original confusion boils down to different uses of "to be" in English, I guess. Not unlike the case of "A is X" vs. "A is a/an Y ", with X being a property/adjective, and Y a category where the "is" is typically expressed with different words in romance and celtic languages. (Spanish "Ser"/"Estar", Irish "Tá"/"Is").
