Ders programı çok uzun.

to be

Breakdown of Ders programı çok uzun.

• çok: very
• uzun: long
• ders programı: the class schedule

Questions & Answers about Ders programı çok uzun.

What exactly does ders programı refer to? Is it like “timetable” or “syllabus”?

Ders programı most commonly means class schedule / timetable: the list of lessons with days and hours (e.g., Monday 9:00–10:00 Math, 10:00–11:00 English, etc.).

It can sometimes be used more loosely to mean the overall plan of a course, but if you specifically want “syllabus” (topics, readings, grading policy), Turkish speakers are more likely to say ders planı, ders izlencesi, or a similar term, not ders programı.

So in everyday school/university context, you should normally understand ders programı as “class schedule / timetable.”

Why is it programı and not just program? What is the -ı doing?

The -ı here is the 3rd person singular possessive suffix (“its”) used in a noun–noun compound:

• ders = lesson, class
• program = program, schedule
• program-ı = its program / its schedule

Together: ders programı literally means “the lesson’s program” / “the program of the lesson(s)”, which is how Turkish commonly forms “class schedule”.

Important points:

• In such compounds (ders programı, okul müdürü, kitap kapağı), the second noun gets a possessive suffix (here -ı).
• The same -ı form also exists as the definite accusative ending (“programı” = “the program” as a direct object), but here it’s clearly possessive because it’s part of a compound noun with another noun in front of it. There is no verb needing an object in this sentence.

So ders programı is not “the program (object)”; it is “the class’s program / class schedule.”

Where is the verb “is” in Ders programı çok uzun? Why is there no word for “is”?

Turkish often does not use a separate word for “to be” in the present tense for he/she/it and they. Instead:

• A noun or adjective by itself can be the predicate (what is said about the subject).

Here:

• Ders programı = the subject
• çok uzun = the predicate (literally “very long”)

Turkish simply says:

• Ders programı çok uzun.
  → literally: “The class schedule very long.”
  → understood as: “The class schedule is very long.”

So there is no explicit “is” word; the present “to be” is just understood from context and structure.

Why is it çok uzun and not something like uzun çok? Where does çok go?

Çok is an adverb meaning “very / a lot” (among other uses). When it modifies an adjective like uzun (long), it:

• comes directly before the adjective.

So:

• çok uzun = very long
• çok güzel = very beautiful
• çok zor = very difficult

Putting it after the adjective (uzun çok) is ungrammatical in this meaning. The normal order in Turkish is:

degree word (çok, biraz, oldukça, pek, etc.) + adjective

So çok uzun is the only natural order here.

Why isn’t there a word like “one” (bir) in the sentence? Why not Bir ders programı çok uzun?

In Turkish, a specific known thing often appears without an article or number word, especially as a subject:

• Ders programı çok uzun.
  → Refers to the (known) class schedule.

If you say:

• Bir ders programı çok uzun.

it feels like you are talking about “a certain class schedule” (one out of many, not specified which), which is usually not what you mean in a context like school, where there is a specific schedule everyone knows about.

So in most real-life situations, you would say Ders programı çok uzun to talk about “the class schedule” that both speaker and listener already know.

Why isn’t ders programı plural? Shouldn’t it be ders programları if there are many classes?

Even though a schedule contains many lessons, it is still one single schedule. So:

• ders programı = the (one) class schedule that includes multiple lessons
• ders programları = schedules (plural) of multiple classes/courses/groups

You would use:

• Ders programı çok uzun.
  → The (one) schedule is very long.

versus:

• Ders programları çok yoğun.
  → The schedules (for different classes, departments, etc.) are very busy.

So singular programı is correct because you are describing one schedule, not many different schedules.

Can the word order change? Is Çok uzun ders programı or Ders programı uzun çok possible?

The neutral, standard word order for this sentence is:

• Ders programı çok uzun. (Subject – Predicate)

Other orders:

1. Çok uzun ders programı.

   • This is not a normal full sentence in standard speech.
   • It sounds like the beginning of a noun phrase: “the very long class schedule …” (as if more information is coming).
   • As a complete sentence, it is odd or poetic.

2. Ders programı uzun çok.

   • This is ungrammatical in standard Turkish.
   • The adverb çok should come before the adjective uzun, not after.

In everyday Turkish, you should keep:

Subject + Predicate → Ders programı çok uzun.

What’s the difference between uzun and words like büyük or geniş? Why uzun here?

• uzun = long (length or duration)

  • uzun yol = long road
  • uzun film = long movie (in time)

• büyük = big / large (general size)

  • büyük ev = big house

• geniş = wide, spacious

  • geniş oda = wide/spacious room

For a schedule, when you say it is uzun, you usually mean:

• it covers a long period of time, or
• it has a lot of items / lessons (so it feels long).

Using büyük or geniş for ders programı would sound strange; they don’t naturally describe a schedule the way uzun does.

How is programı pronounced, and what is that ı sound at the end?

Programı is syllabified as:

• pro-gra-mı (three syllables)

Pronunciation notes:

• The final ı is the Turkish vowel /ɯ/, a close back unrounded vowel:
  • It’s somewhat like the “e” in “taken” or the “a” in “sofa”, but produced further back in the mouth and without lip rounding.
  • English has no exact equivalent.

You don’t pronounce it like the “i” in “sit”. It’s a separate vowel category in Turkish.

So programı is roughly pro-grah-muh (but with the Turkish ı rather than an English “uh”).

Is ders programı always about school, or can it be used in other contexts?

Ders programı is primarily used for educational contexts:

• school timetable
• university class schedule
• course schedule in a language school, etc.

Outside education, for other kinds of programs you usually switch the first word:

• çalışma programı = work schedule / working plan
• etkinlik programı = event program
• antrenman programı = training program

So ders programı is strongly associated with lessons/classes and is not used for general non-lesson schedules.

How would I say “My class schedule is very long” or “Our class schedule is very long”?

You add a personal possessive suffix to program instead of the 3rd person one:

• program-ım = my program
• program-ımız = our program

So:

• Ders programım çok uzun.
  → My class schedule is very long.

• Ders programımız çok uzun.
  → Our class schedule is very long.

Compare the endings:

• program-ı → its schedule (3rd person)
• program-ım → my schedule (1st sg)
• program-ımız → our schedule (1st pl)

The rest of the sentence structure stays the same.

Is there any vowel harmony happening in programı? Why is it -ı and not -i/-u/-ü?

Yes, Turkish vowel harmony determines the form of many suffixes, including the 3rd person possessive.

The last vowel of program is a (a back, unrounded vowel). For the 4-way -(s)I possessive suffix, the options are:

• -ı, -i, -u, -ü

The choice depends on the last vowel of the stem:

• After a, ı → -ı
• After e, i → -i
• After o, u → -u
• After ö, ü → -ü

Since program ends in a, you get:

• program + ı → programı

So programı follows regular vowel harmony rules.