Isıtma çalışmıyor.

to work

Breakdown of Isıtma çalışmıyor.

• ısıtma: the heating

Questions & Answers about Isıtma çalışmıyor.

What does the suffix -ma in ısıtma do? Doesn’t -ma usually make a verb negative?

In ısıtma, -ma is a noun-forming suffix, not the negative. The verb root is ısıt- (to heat), and adding -ma turns it into the noun ısıtma (heating). The negative suffix -ma/-me is the same form but used differently: it attaches to verbs before tense markers to negate them.

How is çalışmıyor formed? It looks like one word but I see çalış-, -mı-, and -yor.

Exactly. çalışmıyor =

1. çalış- (to work/function)
2. negative suffix -ma- (here in its vowel-harmonized form -mı-)
3. present-continuous tense marker -yor
4. zero ending for 3rd person singular
   Altogether çalış
   • -mı
     • -yor = “is not working.”

Why is there no subject pronoun like o (he/it) before çalışmıyor?

Turkish is a pro-drop language: you can omit personal pronouns when the verb ending already shows person and number. Here, the lack of an extra suffix after -yor signals 3rd person singular. You understand “it” (the heating) from that.