Hasarlı telefon çalışmıyor.

to work

Breakdown of Hasarlı telefon çalışmıyor.

• telefon: the phone
• hasarlı: damaged

Questions & Answers about Hasarlı telefon çalışmıyor.

What does the suffix -lı in hasarlı indicate and how is this adjective formed?

The suffix -lı (with its vowel harmonized to -lı/-li/-lu/-lü) attaches to a noun to create an adjective meaning “with [noun]” or “having [noun].” Here, hasar (“damage”) + -lı → hasarlı, literally “having damage,” i.e. “damaged.”

Why is hasarlı placed before telefon in the sentence?

Turkish follows a modifier–head order: adjectives always precede the nouns they modify. Hence hasarlı telefon = “damaged phone.”

Why is there no article like “the” or “a” in front of telefon?

Turkish has no definite or indefinite articles. Context, word order, or quantifiers (e.g. bir “a/an,” o “that”) convey definiteness or indefiniteness instead.

Why is the verb çalışmıyor at the end of the sentence, and why isn’t there a subject pronoun?

1. Turkish is an SOV (subject–object–verb) language, so verbs typically come last.
2. Verbs carry person/number markers, making explicit subject pronouns optional. çalışmıyor alone already means “(it) is not working.”

How is the negative form çalışmıyor constructed?