Bu ev güzel.

to be

Breakdown of Bu ev güzel.

• güzel: nice
• bu: this
• ev: the house

Questions & Answers about Bu ev güzel.

Why is there no word for is in Bu ev güzel?

In Turkish, the verb to be is often left out in the present tense when making simple statements.

So:

• Bu ev güzel = This house is beautiful

There is no separate present-tense word like English is here. Turkish simply puts the subject and description together.

This is very common:

• Hava sıcak = The weather is hot
• O mutlu = He/She is happy

In other tenses or in some other sentence types, Turkish does show this idea more explicitly.

What does bu mean exactly?

Bu usually means this.

In Bu ev güzel, bu points to something near the speaker, just like English this:

• bu ev = this house

It can also be used on its own:

• Bu güzel = This is beautiful

Related words:

• şu = that / this (often something visible, being pointed out, or at medium distance)
• o = that

Why is the word order Bu ev güzel and not something else?