Doktor hastayla ilgileniyor.

It is hasta + -(y)la.

• hasta = patient / sick person
• -(y)la = with

Because hasta ends in a vowel, Turkish inserts a buffer y, so you get hastayla, not hastala.

So grammatically, hastayla means with the patient or with a patient, depending on context.

Both are correct.

• hasta ile
• hastayla

The longer form is ile, which means with. Very often in Turkish, ile is attached to the end of the noun as -la / -le.

So:

• hasta ile → hastayla

The attached form is extremely common in everyday Turkish.

This is because of vowel harmony.

The last vowel in hasta is a, so the with ending appears as -la rather than -le.

Compare:

• doktorla = with the doctor
• öğrenciyle = with the student
• evle would not occur here because the correct harmonic form after ev would be evle only in theory, but in practice people usually use words where the form sounds natural; a clearer example is kedile? no, actually after vowel you'd use kediyle

A simple rule:

• after back vowels → -la
• after front vowels → -le

The dictionary form is ilgilenmek.

In dictionaries, Turkish verbs are listed with -mek / -mak, the infinitive ending.

So:

• ilgilenmek = to be interested in / to deal with / to take care of
• ilgileniyor = is dealing with / is taking care of / is interested in

To recognize the verb, remove the tense ending and look for the infinitive form.

In this sentence, ilgilenmek means something like:

• to attend to
• to take care of
• to deal with

This verb can also mean to be interested in, depending on context.

For example:

• Müzikle ilgileniyor. = He/She is interested in music.
• Doktor hastayla ilgileniyor. = The doctor is attending to the patient.

So the context tells you which English meaning is most natural.

Because ilgilenmek does not take a direct object in the accusative.

In Turkish, some verbs require a specific case or postposition-like ending. İlgilenmek normally goes with ile / -le / -la.

So you say:

• biriyle ilgilenmek = to deal with / take care of someone
• bir şeyle ilgilenmek = to be interested in something

Not:

• birini ilgilenmek
• bir şeyi ilgilenmek

So hastayla is correct because the verb requires with, not a direct object.

-iyor is the Turkish present continuous marker.

Here it shows an ongoing action:

• ilgileniyor = is taking care of / is attending to

This is often one of the first tense forms learners meet. It commonly corresponds to English am/is/are ... -ing.

So:

• geliyor = is coming
• okuyor = is reading
• ilgileniyor = is attending to / is dealing with

There is no separate word for is here, because Turkish usually builds that meaning into the verb itself.

In English, you say:

• is taking care of

In Turkish, the verb form ilgileniyor already contains the tense/aspect meaning, so a separate is is unnecessary.

That is very normal in Turkish:

• one verb form often does the work of several English words.

Mainly from word order and meaning.

The neutral Turkish order is usually:

subject + other elements + verb

So in:

• Doktor hastayla ilgileniyor

the most natural reading is:

• doktor = subject
• hastayla = complement with -la
• ilgileniyor = verb

Also, doktor is singular, and the verb is in the third-person singular form, which fits perfectly.

Because Turkish does not have articles like English a and the.

So bare nouns like doktor and hasta can mean:

• the doctor / a doctor
• the patient / a patient

Which one is intended depends on context.

English forces you to choose, but Turkish often leaves that open unless something else makes it specific.

Yes, Turkish word order is flexible.

The neutral, most standard version is:

• Doktor hastayla ilgileniyor.

But other orders are possible for emphasis or contrast, for example:

• Hastayla doktor ilgileniyor.
• Doktor ilgileniyor hastayla.

These are more marked and depend on context. The verb often stays at the end in ordinary, neutral sentences.

So for a learner, the safest default is:

subject + complements + verb

No. Turkish nouns do not have grammatical gender.

So doktor can refer to:

• a male doctor
• a female doctor

The sentence itself does not tell you the doctor’s gender unless extra context is given.

No. It is a broader verb.

It can mean:

• to take care of
• to deal with
• to attend to
• to be interested in

So it is not a specifically medical verb. In this sentence, because the subject is a doctor and the other person is a patient, the medical meaning is the natural one.