Sinemanın önünde uzun sıra var.

the cinema

Breakdown of Sinemanın önünde uzun sıra var.

• uzun: long
• var: to exist
• -de: in

Questions & Answers about Sinemanın önünde uzun sıra var.

Why does Sinemanın have the suffix -nın? What case is that?

It’s the genitive case suffix. sinema + -nın = Sinemanın. We use the genitive on the possessor (“cinema”) because the thing it “owns” (önde, front) also needs to agree with it.

Why is önünde one word and what are its components?

It breaks down into three parts:
• ön = front
• -ü = third-person possessive suffix (“its”)
• -nde = locative case suffix (“at/in/on”)
Combined, ön+ü+nde = “at its front,” i.e. in front of it.

What role does var play in this sentence?

var means “there is/are.” It’s the existential verb in Turkish, used to state that something exists (here, a long queue).

Why isn’t there an explicit article like bir before uzun sıra?

Turkish often omits bir (“a/an”) in existential sentences. You can say uzun bir sıra var to mean “there is a long queue,” but uzun sıra var is equally correct and more concise.

Could the word order be different, for example Uzun sıra sinemanın önünde var?