Polis eski düşmanı gördü.

old

Breakdown of Polis eski düşmanı gördü.

• görmek: to see
• polis: the police officer
• düşman: an enemy

Questions & Answers about Polis eski düşmanı gördü.

Why is the verb at the end here?

Because the most neutral Turkish word order is Subject–Object–Verb.

So:

• Polis = subject
• eski düşmanı = object
• gördü = verb

This verb-final pattern is very common in Turkish. English usually prefers Subject–Verb–Object, so this often feels backwards at first to English speakers.

Other word orders are possible in Turkish, but they usually add emphasis or change the focus.

How do I know polis is the subject?

In this sentence, polis has no case ending, which is normal for a subject in Turkish. The subject is usually in the nominative, and the nominative has zero marking.

Meanwhile, düşmanı has an ending that marks it as the direct object. So the sentence means that the police officer / police did the seeing, not the enemy.

A useful comparison:

• Polis eski düşmanı gördü. = the police officer saw the old enemy
• Eski düşman polisi gördü. = the old enemy saw the police officer

In the second sentence, polisi is marked as the object.

What does the -ı on düşmanı mean?