Ofiste güvenlik kameraları her gün çalışıyor.

The security cameras in the office work every day.

Breakdown of Ofiste güvenlik kameraları her gün çalışıyor.

• çalışmak: to work
• her gün: every day
• kamera: the camera
• güvenlik: security
• ofiste: at the office

Questions & Answers about Ofiste güvenlik kameraları her gün çalışıyor.

How do you say “in the office,” and what is the -te at the end of ofiste?

You form “in the office” by putting ofis (office) into the locative case. The locative suffix is -de/–da or -te/–ta, chosen by vowel harmony and consonant voicing.

• ofis ends in the front vowel i, so it would normally take -de.
• But because s is a voiceless consonant, d voices to t: ofis + te → ofiste.
  Together, ofiste means in the office.

Why is there no word for “the” or “a” before güvenlik kameraları?

Turkish does not have separate articles like a or the. Definiteness is shown by context or by the accusative ending on objects. Here, güvenlik kameraları simply means security cameras (definite or indefinite by context). If you wanted to stress “the security cameras” as a specific set of cameras and they were the object of the verb, you’d add an accusative suffix -ı/–i: güvenlik kameralarını.

What does güvenlik kameraları literally break down into?

• güvenlik = “security” (a noun used like an adjective)
• kamera = “camera”
• -lar = plural suffix (“cameras”)
  So güvenlik kameraları means security cameras.

Why is her gün used for “every day,” and can it move around in the sentence?

her means “each,” gün means “day.” Together her gün = every day. Time expressions in Turkish are adverbs, so you can place them before or after the subject, or right before the verb, depending on emphasis. All of these are natural:

• Her gün ofiste güvenlik kameraları çalışıyor.
• Ofiste her gün güvenlik kameraları çalışıyor.
• Ofiste güvenlik kameraları her gün çalışıyor.

Why is the verb çalışıyor in the present continuous rather than a simple present?

Turkish uses the present continuous (-iyor ending) for both “right now” actions and habitual actions (“do something regularly”). Here çalışıyor (from çalışmak, “to work/operate”) conveys “they operate/work every day.” There is no separate simple present tense in Turkish.

What does çalışmak mean when talking about cameras?

çalışmak normally means “to work” (as in a person’s job) but also “to function” or “operate” for machines. So kameralar çalışıyor literally means “the cameras are working/operating.”

What is the basic word order in this sentence, and how does it differ from English?

Turkish is generally Subject-Object-Verb, but it also allows place and time expressions before the subject. The order here is:
1) place (Ofiste)
2) subject (güvenlik kameraları)
3) time (her gün)
4) verb (çalışıyor)
In English you’d say Subject-Verb-Object, and prepositional/time phrases usually come before or after the clause, but in Turkish they slot in front of the verb.