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Questions & Answers about Denizin dibi soğuk.
Why does deniz take the suffix -in in Denizin dibi soğuk?
The suffix -in is the genitive marker in Turkish. It turns deniz (“sea”) into denizin (“sea’s” or “of the sea”), showing that the bottom belongs to the sea.
Why is dip changed to dibi instead of just adding -i?
Turkish uses a genitive–possessive construction: the possessor (denizin) is in the genitive, and the possessed noun (dip) takes a 3rd-person singular possessive suffix -i to become dibi (“its bottom”). Phonetically, the final p in dip voices to b before the vowel i (a common assimilation).
Where is the verb “is”? Why does the sentence just say soğuk (“cold”)?
In Turkish, when you have a simple predicate adjective in the present tense, the copula -dır/-tir is normally dropped in spoken and informal writing. So Denizin dibi soğuk literally reads “The sea’s bottom cold,” but is understood as “The sea’s bottom is cold.” A more formal version would be Denizin dibi soğuktur.
What is the word order here? Why does denizin come before dibi?
Turkish places the possessor before the possessed noun: possessor(genitive) + possessed(possessive suffix). So Denizin dibi means “the bottom of the sea.” The predicate (soğuk) then follows the noun phrase.
Why are there no articles like “the” or “a” in this sentence?
Turkish does not use words equivalent to English “a/the.” Definiteness is often signaled by context or by structures like the genitive–possessive pair here, so you don’t need a separate “the.”
How does vowel harmony determine the forms of -in and -i?
Turkish vowel harmony means suffix vowels match certain properties of the root’s vowels:
- Genitive -in (variants -ın/-in/-un/-ün) uses i because deniz has front unrounded vowels.
- Possessive -i (variants -ı/-i/-u/-ü) uses i because the last vowel of dip is front unrounded.
How would you pluralize this? (“The bottoms of the seas are cold”)
You pluralize both possessor and possessed, then apply genitive and possessive:
- deniz → denizler (seas) → genitive denizlerin
- dip → dipler (bottoms) → possessive dipleri
Result: Denizlerin dipleri soğuk.
How can I turn this statement into a yes/no question?
Add the question particle mi (harmonized for back-rounded vowel after soğuk, so mu): Denizin dibi soğuk mu? (“Is the bottom of the sea cold?”)