Questions & Answers about Bu yemekte çok kalori var.
Why do we use yemekte instead of yemek?
yemekte is the locative form of yemek (“food/meal”). The suffix -te (after the vowel e, due to vowel harmony) means “in/at,” so Bu yemekte… literally means “In this meal…”
What does var mean in this sentence, and why isn’t there another verb?
var is the Turkish existential verb meaning “there is/there are.” It shows that something exists or is present. When you use var, you don’t need another main verb for existence.
Why doesn’t kalori take a plural ending even though we mean “many calories”?
In Turkish with var, the noun stays in the nominative (uninflected) form. Plus, borrowed count nouns like kalori often function as mass nouns when quantified by çok. If you want to give a precise number you’d still say, for example, 100 kalori, not 100 kaloriler.
What role does çok play here, and could we use a different word?
çok is a quantifier/adverb meaning “many” or “a lot of.” It goes immediately before the noun it modifies: çok kalori = “a lot of calories.” You could also say çok fazla kalori (much too many calories).
Can we say Bu yemek çok kalorili instead of Bu yemekte çok kalori var?