Learn Hardcore Turkish: Çevre koruma herkesin görevi. - Environmental protection is everyone’s duty.

In Turkish, the copular verb “to be” (olmak) is usually omitted in the present simple tense. So a sentence like “The protection of the environment is everyone’s duty” in English becomes simply “Çevre koruma herkesin görevi.” The meaning “is” is understood without an explicit verb.

Why aren’t there any articles like “the” or “a” before çevre koruma?

Turkish has no indefinite or definite articles. Whether you mean “environmental protection” in general or a specific act of protecting the environment, you just say çevre koruma. Context tells you if it’s general or specific.

What grammatical role does çevre koruma play in this sentence? Is it one word or two?

Çevre koruma is a noun phrase made of two nouns: çevre (“environment”) + koruma (“protection”). Together they form a compound meaning “environmental protection”. In this sentence it functions as the subject.

Why is herkesin marked with -in? What case is that?

Herkesin is “herkes” (“everyone”) in the genitive case. In Turkish, the genitive (-in) marks the possessor. Since everyone possesses the duty, we say herkesin.

Why does görev take the -i suffix at the end?

When you have a genitive possessor (herkesin), the possessed noun (görev) must take the corresponding possessive suffix. Here it’s third-person singular possessive -i, so görev → görevi, meaning “his/its duty”. Altogether: herkesin görevi = “everyone’s duty.”

Could I say “Çevreyi koruma herkesin görevi” instead of “Çevre koruma herkesin görevi”?

You can say “Çevreyi koruma…” only if you turn the verb into a noun phrase meaning “protecting the environment” (the gerund). Then you still need possession:

Çevreyi koruma herkesin görevidir.
Here çevreyi koruma = “the act of protecting the environment,” and you must add -dir (formal “is”) or leave it implicit. But çevre koruma (without -yı) is a standard compound noun “environmental protection,” more concise.

Is the word order fixed? Could I say “Herkesin görevi çevre koruma”?

Turkish word order is relatively flexible, especially for emphasis. “Herkesin görevi çevre koruma” is grammatically correct and stresses “everyone’s duty” first, then names what it is. The standard neutral order is Subject + Predicate (Çevre koruma / herkesin görevi), but you can swap them when you want to highlight a different part.