Breakdown of Botlarım gri ve kahverengi; bu renk kombinasyonu harika görünüyor.
olmak
to be
bu
this
benim
my
ve
and
görünmek
to look
harika
wonderful
bot
the boot
gri
gray
kahverengi
brown
renk kombinasyonu
the color combination
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Questions & Answers about Botlarım gri ve kahverengi; bu renk kombinasyonu harika görünüyor.
Why does botlarım end with -ım? What does that suffix indicate?
It’s the 1st person singular possessive suffix. You form botlarım (“my boots”) by taking bot (“boot”), adding -lar to make the plural (botlar), then adding -ım to show “my.”
Why is there no verb to be in botlarım gri ve kahverengi?
In Turkish the copula (equivalent to “is/are”) is dropped in the simple present. You simply state noun + adjective to mean “Noun is adjective.” A formal suffix -dir exists but is almost always omitted in everyday speech and writing.
Can I also say gri ve kahverengi botlarım instead of botlarım gri ve kahverengi? Do they mean the same thing?
Yes, both are correct but have slightly different focuses:
- Gri ve kahverengi botlarım = “my grey and brown boots” (attributive adjective before noun).
- Botlarım gri ve kahverengi = “my boots are grey and brown” (predicate structure without an explicit “to be”).
Why do gri and kahverengi stay unchanged? Don’t adjectives take suffixes?
Color words in Turkish act like adjectives but generally don’t inflect for number, person, or case when used predicatively or attributively. You say gri bot (“grey boot”), never griler bot or griyi bot unless you need a specific case.
What’s the role of the semicolon (;) in …kahverengi; bu renk kombinasyonu harika görünüyor? Could I use a comma or “ve” instead?
The semicolon links two closely related independent clauses with a stronger pause than a comma. You could replace it with a comma (…, kahverengi, bu renk…) or add ve (…, kahverengi ve bu renk…), but the semicolon adds a stylistic break in writing.
What does görünüyor mean and why not görüyor?
Görünüyor comes from the verb görünmek (“to appear; to look [like]”) plus the present-continuous suffix -üyor. It means “looks/seems.” By contrast, görüyor (from görmek “to see” + -üyor) means “he/she/it sees.”
Why does kombinasyonu end with -u? Is that the accusative case?
No. The -u here is the 3rd person singular possessive suffix on kombinasyon. Together renk + kombinasyon + -u = renk kombinasyonu (“the combination of color”). Since this phrase is the subject of görünüyor, it remains in the nominative case and does not take an accusative suffix.
What case is bu renk kombinasyonu in? Why isn’t there an extra case ending?
It’s in the nominative case as the subject of the second clause. The word bu (“this”) makes the noun phrase definite, but no additional case ending is needed for the subject position.