Tuvalet küçük ama temiz.

Breakdown of Tuvalet küçük ama temiz.

olmak
to be
küçük
small
ama
but
temiz
clean
tuvalet
the toilet
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Questions & Answers about Tuvalet küçük ama temiz.

In the Turkish sentence Tuvalet küçük ama temiz, why is there no verb corresponding to “is”?

In Turkish, the present-tense copula (“to be”) is usually omitted in simple descriptive sentences. You can think of it as implicitly there:
Tuvalet (dir) küçük – “The toilet is small”
Ama adds the contrasting idea, so ama temiz completes it as “but (it’s) clean.”
Adding -dir (the formal 3rd-person copula) – Tuvalet küçüktür – is possible but very formal and rarely used in casual speech.

Why isn’t there an article like “the” or “a” before tuvalet?

Turkish has no separate words for “the” or “a.” Definiteness is shown by context or by the accusative suffix (-ı/-i) on direct objects. As the subject here:
• No article or suffix is needed.
Tuvalet küçük… simply means “The toilet is small” (or “A toilet is small,” depending on context).

What is ama doing in this sentence?

Ama is the Turkish conjunction for but, used to connect two contrasting descriptions:
• Clause 1: Tuvalet küçük (“The toilet is small”)
Ama = “but”
• Clause 2: temiz (“clean”)
So Tuvalet küçük ama temiz = “The toilet is small but clean.”

Why do küçük and temiz not change form to match tuvalet?

Turkish adjectives are invariable. They do not inflect for:
• Gender (there is none in Turkish)
• Number (singular/plural)
• Case
Whether used attributively (küçük tuvalet) or predicatively (tuvalet küçük), adjectives stay in their base form.

In Tuvalet küçük ama temiz, why do the adjectives come after the noun?

This sentence uses predicative adjectives (it describes the subject). For predication, Turkish word order is:
• Subject (noun) → Predicate (adjective or nominal phrase)
If you wanted to use them attributively (as direct modifiers), you’d place them before:
Küçük tuvalet = “small toilet.”

How do I pronounce the ç and ü in küçük and tuvalet?

Pronunciation tips:
ç sounds like English ch in “church.”
ü is a front-rounded u, similar to German ü or French “u” in lune.
Phonetic approximations:
tuvalet ≈ [too-vah-LET]
küçük ≈ [kyu-CHYUK] (with both ü sounds like “ee” but rounded)