Learn Hardcore Turkish: Yol tıkalı.

In Turkish, when you describe something’s state with a past participle adjective (like tıkalı, “blocked”), you drop the copula olmak in the present tense. So Yol tıkalı literally reads “road blocked,” but we understand “The road is blocked.”

Why isn’t there a definite article like the before yol?

Turkish doesn’t use articles (a, an, the) the way English does. Context usually tells you if something is definite or indefinite. Here, Yol tıkalı can mean “A road is blocked” or “The road is blocked,” depending on context.

Is tıkalı a verb or an adjective?

Tıkalı is the past passive participle of the verb tıkamak (“to block”), used as an adjective. It describes the state of the road: “blocked.”

What case is yol in, and why isn’t it marked with a suffix?

Here yol is in the nominative (basic) case because it’s the subject of an implied predicate (“is blocked”). Subjects in simple state-of-being sentences don’t need extra case or possession suffixes.

How would you say “My road is blocked”?