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Questions & Answers about Göl kenarında oturuyorum.
What is the morphological breakdown of kenarında?
kenar (edge) + 3rd-person possessive suffix -ı (its) + locative suffix -nda = at its edge, i.e. by the shore.
Why isn't there a genitive suffix on göl, like gölün kenarında?
In Turkish, compound nouns like göl kenarı (lakeside) often omit the genitive suffix on the first noun. You can say gölün kenarında if you want to be explicit, but göl kenarında is equally natural and very common.
Why don’t we use gölde to mean “by the lake”?
gölde is the locative of göl and literally means in the lake (on the inside of). To express by the lake (on the shore), you say göl kenarında.
Why is there no article like the or a before göl?
Turkish has no separate words for articles. Definiteness is understood from context. If you need an explicit indefinite, you can add bir, as in bir göl kenarında (by a lake).
Why isn't ben (I) included before oturuyorum?
Turkish is a pro-drop language: the subject pronoun can be omitted because the verb ending -yorum already indicates 1st person singular. You include ben only for emphasis.
What tense and aspect does oturuyorum express, and how is it formed?
oturuyorum is the present progressive (continuous) tense, meaning I am sitting right now. It’s formed by taking the verb stem otur- (to sit), adding the progressive suffix -uyor-, and then the 1st-person singular ending -um, yielding otur-uyor-um, which contracts to oturuyorum.
How does vowel harmony affect the suffixes in kenarında?
Both the possessive suffix -ı and the locative suffix -nda harmonize with the last vowel a in kenar. Because a is a back vowel, the possessive takes ı (not i) and the locative takes a (in nda), resulting in kenarında.
How would you say “I sat by the lake” and “I will sit by the lake”?
- I sat by the lake: Göl kenarında oturdum.
- I will sit by the lake: Göl kenarında oturacağım.
In the past you use the simple past suffix -du, and for future the suffix -acak- 1st-person ending.
Why is göl kenarında placed before the verb instead of after, as in English?
Turkish generally follows Subject-Object-Verb order, and adverbial phrases of place usually come before the verb. So göl kenarında oturuyorum is the neutral word order. Placing the location at the end (oturuyorum göl kenarında) is grammatically possible but less common in an unmarked sentence.