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Questions & Answers about Bahçedeki çit sarı.
What do the suffixes -de and -ki in bahçedeki mean?
Break it down:
• bahçe = garden
• -de = in (locative case)
• -ki = that which (relative suffix)
So bahçedeki literally means “the one in the garden,” i.e. “that which is in the garden.”
Why is bahçedeki written as one word instead of three?
In Turkish, case endings and the relative -ki attach directly to the noun. So you don’t write “bahçe de ki” separately. It’s bahçe + de + ki = bahçedeki.
Why is there no verb “to be” in Bahçedeki çit sarı?
Turkish omits the present‐tense copula “is.” You simply say Subject + Predicate. Here bahçedeki çit is the subject and sarı is the predicate adjective: “The fence in the garden is yellow.”
Why aren’t there any articles like “the” or “a” in Turkish?
Turkish has no separate words for the or a. Definiteness is inferred from context or sometimes marked by other suffixes, but you don’t use an article.
Why isn’t it bahçedeki sarı çit (“the yellow fence in the garden”)?
Bahçedeki sarı çit is just a noun phrase meaning “the yellow fence in the garden.” In a sentence you need Subject + Predicate. So you say bahçedeki çit (subject) sarı (predicate).
How would you turn it into a question, e.g. “Is the fence in the garden yellow?”
Add the question particle mı/mi/mu/mü after the predicate (vowel‐harmonized):
Bahçedeki çit sarı mı?
How do you make it plural? “The fences in the garden are yellow.”
Pluralize çit with -ler:
Bahçedeki çitler sarı.
How would you say “The fence in my garden is yellow”?
Add the 1st‐person possessive to bahçe:
bahçem + -deki = bahçemdeki
→ Bahçemdeki çit sarı.
Why can’t you say just bahçede çit sarı?
bahçede = “in the garden,” but you need -ki to turn that phrase into an adjective modifying çit. Without -ki, you’d be listing two separate locative phrases, not saying “the fence that is in the garden.”