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Questions & Answers about Resimde kedi uyuyor.
What does resimde mean literally and how is it formed?
Resimde comes from resim (picture) + the locative suffix -de, so it literally means in the picture. In Turkish, case markers like -de attach directly to common nouns without a space or apostrophe.
Why don’t we use an English article like “the” or “a” before kedi?
Turkish has no separate words for “a” or “the.” Nouns stand on their own, and definiteness or indefiniteness is understood from context. Here kedi simply means cat (i.e. “the cat” or “a cat,” depending on what you already know).
Why is the verb uyuyor at the end of the sentence?
Turkish follows a Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) order. Even when you start with a locative phrase, the verb stays last: resimde (locative) + kedi (subject) + uyuyor (verb).
How is uyuyor formed from the infinitive uyumak (to sleep)?
- Remove -mak from uyumak → uyu- (stem)
- Because uyu- ends in a vowel, insert a buffer -y-
- Add the present-continuous suffix -uyor (harmonized to u)
Result: uyu- y
- uyor = uyuyor
- y
What is the buffer -y- doing in uyuyor?
When a stem ends in a vowel and the suffix starts with a vowel, Turkish inserts y (or sometimes n) to avoid two vowels clashing. That’s why it’s uyuyor, not uiuor.
Why is the suffix -de in resimde and not -da or -te?
- Vowel harmony: resim has a front vowel i, so the suffix uses the front form -de, not the back -da.
- Consonant voicing: because m is a voiced consonant, -d- remains d (after voiceless consonants it would turn into t, e.g. kitap → kitapta).
Could I say kedi resimde uyuyor instead of resimde kedi uyuyor?
Yes. Kedi resimde uyuyor is also correct. Turkish word order is flexible for emphasis or topic-focus structure. Placing kedi first emphasizes “the cat,” while resimde first emphasizes “in the picture.”
Why isn’t there any case marking on kedi?
Kedi is the subject, so it stays in the nominative case without a suffix. Only direct objects take the accusative suffix -(y)i, and other grammatical roles have their own appropriate suffixes.