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Questions & Answers about Can çok değerlidir.
Is Can here the English word can?
No. Here Can is almost certainly a Turkish personal name, usually a male name.
A native English speaker might expect can to be the modal verb, but in Turkish Can with a capital C is commonly a name.
It is pronounced roughly like Jahn:
- C in Turkish = j as in jam
- a is like the a in father
- so Can sounds like jan / jahn, not like English can
Why is there no separate word for is?
In Turkish, sentences with a noun or adjective predicate often do not need a separate word for is in the present tense.
So:
- Can çok değerli. = Can is very valuable.
Turkish often leaves the present-tense to be unspoken in this kind of sentence.
In your sentence, the ending -dir is added, which brings in that copular meaning in a more formal or emphatic way:
- Can çok değerlidir.
So English needs is, but Turkish often does not.
What does -dir mean in değerlidir?