Pazarda toplam beş elma var.

to be

Breakdown of Pazarda toplam beş elma var.

• beş: five
• -de: in
• pazar: the market

Questions & Answers about Pazarda toplam beş elma var.

What does Pazarda mean, and how is it formed?

Pazarda breaks down into two parts:

• pazar = “market”
• -da = the locative case suffix meaning “in/at/on”

Together, Pazarda means “in the market” or “at the market.”

Why is there no apostrophe between pazar and -da?

In Turkish, you only use an apostrophe before suffixes when attaching them to proper nouns (like İstanbul’da). Since pazar is a common noun, its locative suffix -da is attached directly without an apostrophe.

How does the locative suffix -da change according to vowel and consonant harmony?

The locative suffix has two variants: -da/-de and -ta/-te.

1. Vowel harmony (back vs. front vowels):
   
   • “a” or “ı” ⇒ -da or -ta
   • “e” or “i” or “ö” or “ü” ⇒ -de or -te
2. Consonant harmony (voicing):
   
   • After voiced consonants or vowels ⇒ -da/de
   • After voiceless consonants (p, ç, t, k, f, h, s, ş) ⇒ -ta/te

Since pazar ends in the vowel “r” (voiced) and “a” is a back vowel, we pick -da: hence pazarda.

What is toplam, and why is it used here?