Learn Hardcore Turkish: Antibiyotik tedavisi sırasında bol su içmek çok önemli. - Drinking plenty of water during antibiotic treatment is very important.

In Turkish noun–noun compounds that mean “X treatment,” “X process,” etc., only the head noun (here tedavi) takes the 3rd person possessive suffix -si (“its treatment”), giving tedavisi. The modifier (antibiyotik) remains bare. This is different from a true genitive phrase, which would be antibiyotiğin tedavisi (“the treatment of the antibiotic,” which sounds odd).

How is sırasında constructed, and what does each part do?

sırasında = sıra (“order/turn”) + -sı (3rd person possessive, “its turn”) + -nda (locative, “in/at”). Literally “at its turn,” idiomatically “during.” So Antibiyotik tedavisi sırasında means “during (the) antibiotic treatment.”

Can I swap sırasında with esnasında or boyunca?

Yes. Both esnasında and boyunca also mean “during/throughout.” Examples:

Antibiyotik tedavisi esnasında bol su içmek…
Antibiyotik tedavisi boyunca bol su içmek…
They’re all correct; sırasında is just very common.

Why is there no accusative suffix -(y)i on su in bol su içmek?

When an object is an indefinite quantity or a general mass (like “water” in “drinking water in general”), Turkish omits the accusative suffix. bol su içmek = “drinking plenty of water” (in general). If you said bol suyu içmek, it’d imply a specific “abundance of water.”

Why is içmek in the infinitive form (ending in -mek) rather than conjugated?

Here bol su içmek is not a finite clause but a verbal noun (an infinitive clause) acting as the subject of çok önemli. Attaching -mek/-mak to the verb root turns iç (“drink”) into the infinitive “to drink,” which in Turkish behaves like a noun.

Why is there no copula (“is”) in çok önemli?

In Turkish, the 3rd person copula from olmak (“to be”) is often dropped in the present tense. So çok önemli simply means “(it is) very important” without explicitly saying “is.”

Why aren’t there any articles like “the” or “a” before antibiyotik tedavisi?

Turkish doesn’t use separate articles. Definiteness or indefiniteness is shown by context and suffixes. Here tedavisi has the possessive suffix -si, which also marks it as definite. No extra word is needed.

What does bol mean, and why doesn’t it take a suffix?

bol means “plenty of/abundant.” When placed before a noun (like su), it stays in its base form (no case or possession suffix) to indicate a generous amount. It works with mass nouns (su, zaman, yağmur) or plurals (bol kitap).

Why is Antibiyotik tedavisi sırasında placed before bol su içmek?

Turkish follows an SOV order and generally puts time/place adverbials at the beginning. Here the order is:

Time adverbial: Antibiyotik tedavisi sırasında
Subject (verbal noun): bol su içmek
Predicate: çok önemli
This is the most natural and clear sequence, though you can shift elements for emphasis.