Questions & Answers about Şehirde bir milyon kişi yaşıyor.
What does şehirde mean, and why is it written as one word?
Şehir means city. The ending -de is the locative suffix, which means in or at.
So:
- şehir = city
- şehirde = in the city
It is written as one word because -de here is a suffix, not a separate word.
Compare:
- şehirde = in the city
- şehir de = the city too / the city also
Why is it -de here and not -da or -te?
This is because of two regular sound rules in Turkish:
- Vowel harmony decides between -de and -da
- Consonant voicing decides between d and t
In şehir, the last vowel is i, which is a front vowel, so the suffix uses the front form: -de / -te, not -da / -ta.
Also, şehir ends in r, which is a voiced consonant, so the suffix uses d, not t.
That gives:
- şehir + de → şehirde