Bina hasarı küçük değil; tam tersine ağır.

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Breakdown of Bina hasarı küçük değil; tam tersine ağır.

• değil: not
• ağır: severe
• tam tersine: on the contrary

Questions & Answers about Bina hasarı küçük değil; tam tersine ağır.

Why is it bina hasarı and not binanın hasarı?

This is a very common question because Turkish has two similar-looking noun structures.

• bina hasarı = building damage / damage to buildings as a type or category
• binanın hasarı = the damage of the building / the building’s damage, usually referring to one specific building

In bina hasarı, the first noun bina stays bare, and the second noun hasar takes the 3rd-person possessive ending -ı: hasar + ı. This is the standard indefinite noun compound pattern in Turkish.

So here, bina hasarı sounds like a general expression, similar to English building damage.

If the speaker were talking about one particular building already known in the conversation, binanın hasarı would also be possible.

What does hasar mean exactly?

Hasar means damage.

It is often used for:

• buildings
• vehicles
• property
• structures
• material damage in general

So bina hasarı means damage to the building or building damage.

A useful distinction:

• hasar = damage
• zarar = harm, loss, damage in a broader sense

In this sentence, hasar is the natural word because it refers to physical damage.

Why is küçük used here? Doesn’t it literally mean small?