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Questions & Answers about Kilise çok eski.
Why is there no verb equivalent to “is” in Kilise çok eski?
In Turkish, the copula (“to be”) is dropped in the simple present tense. You don’t need a separate verb—Kilise çok eski literally reads “church very old”, but it is understood as “The church is very old.”
Why is there no article like “the” or “a” before kilise?
Turkish does not have a definite article (“the”). For an indefinite article (“a/an”), you use bir only when you actually need to say “an”. In a predicative sentence like this, you simply say Kilise çok eski without bir.
How would you say “an old church” in Turkish?
Put the adjective first, then bir, then the noun:
eski bir kilise
(literally “old a church”).
Where does çok go? Can you say eski çok kilise?
No. çok is an adverb modifying the adjective eski, so it comes immediately before eski:
çok eski.
If you want a noun phrase, you could say Çok eski bir kilise (“a very old church”).
How do you turn Kilise çok eski into a question, “Is the church very old?”?
Add the question particle mi (with vowel harmony) right after eski:
Kilise çok eski mi?
How would you say “my church is very old”?
Attach the 1st-person possessive suffix -m to kilise and keep the rest the same:
Kilisem çok eski.
Can I say Çok eski kilise instead of Kilise çok eski? What does that mean?
Çok eski kilise alone is just a noun phrase (“a very old church”)—not a full sentence. If you want to express the idea as a sentence, either:
- Çok eski bir kilise (“a very old church” as a noun phrase with an article)
- Kilise çok eski (“The church is very old.”)