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Questions & Answers about İki köpek oynuyor.
What does iki mean in this sentence?
İki means two. It tells you the quantity of dogs in the sentence.
Why is the noun köpek not marked with a plural suffix even though it means "dogs"?
In Turkish, when a numeral like iki (two) is used, the noun stays in its singular form. The numeral already indicates plurality, so there’s no need for an additional plural marker on köpek.
What is the root form of oynuyor, and how is the present continuous tense formed?
The root verb is oynamak (to play). To form the present continuous tense, Turkish adds the -yor suffix to the stem, resulting in oynuyor, which means is playing.
How does subject–verb agreement work given that the subject (two dogs) is plural but the verb is in singular form?
Turkish verbs in the third person remain in a standard singular form regardless of whether the subject is singular or plural. So even though iki köpek implies more than one dog, the verb oynuyor stays unchanged.
How is the word order in Turkish different from English in this sentence?
The Turkish sentence follows a subject–verb order when no object is present, placing iki köpek (subject) before oynuyor (verb). In English, you need an auxiliary verb (“are playing”) to form the present continuous, but Turkish expresses this with a single conjugated verb.
If there were no numeral in the sentence, how would you indicate multiple dogs?
Without a numeral, you would add a plural suffix to the noun. For example, köpek would become köpekler to mean dogs in general.
How does vowel harmony affect the formation of the verb oynuyor?
Turkish suffixes, like -yor, follow vowel harmony rules to match the vowels of the verb stem. While you might see variations such as -ıyor, -iyor, -uyor, or -üyor with different verbs, the vowel in oynamak prompts the use of oynuyor.