Bina fırtınada zarar gördü.

the building

Breakdown of Bina fırtınada zarar gördü.

• -da: in
• fırtına: the storm
• zarar görmek: to be damaged

Questions & Answers about Bina fırtınada zarar gördü.

What does fırtınada mean, and what is the role of the -da suffix?

The suffix -da is the locative case marker, meaning “in/at/on.” So fırtınada literally means “in the storm,” indicating that the damage happened during or within the storm.

Why is zarar gördü used to express “was damaged”?

Zarar görmek is an idiomatic verb phrase meaning “to suffer damage.” Although it literally translates as “see damage,” in Turkish it functions like a passive: “to be damaged” or “to suffer harm.” You wouldn’t use zarar yapmak (“make damage”) or zarar etmek (“incur a loss”) to say “the building was damaged.”

Why does bina have no suffix or article before it?

1. Turkish does not have an indefinite article (“a/an”), and the definite article “the” is also unmarked.
2. Bina is the sentence subject in the nominative case, which in Turkish is unmarked (no suffix). Context tells you whether it’s “a building” or “the building.”

Is zarar görmek already a passive form?

Not exactly. Zarar görmek is a fixed stative construction. If you wanted a more explicit passive with “by the storm,” you could say:
Bina, fırtına tarafından zarar gördü.
Here tarafından marks the agent (“by the storm”). But in everyday speech, Bina fırtınada zarar gördü is perfectly natural.