Kahverengi çanta masada duruyor.

The brown bag is on the table.

Breakdown of Kahverengi çanta masada duruyor.

• çanta: the bag
• durmak: to stand
• masada: on the table
• kahverengi: brown

Questions & Answers about Kahverengi çanta masada duruyor.

What does kahverengi mean, and how do adjectives work in Turkish?

Kahverengi means brown. In Turkish, adjectives precede the noun (so brown bag becomes kahverengi çanta) and do not change form for gender or number—they stay the same whether the noun is singular or plural.

Why is there no word for the or a in this sentence? How would I say a brown bag or the brown bag?

Turkish does not have articles like the or a. To say a brown bag, you can add bir:
Bir kahverengi çanta masada duruyor.
Omitting bir still implies indefiniteness, so Kahverengi çanta usually means a brown bag. There is no definite article; context tells you if it’s specific (the).

What does masada mean, and why is there a -da suffix?

Masada is masa (table) plus the locative case suffix -da, meaning on or at. So masada means on the table. The locative suffix has four forms (-da/-de/-ta/-te) chosen by vowel and consonant harmony; since masa ends in a (a back vowel), we use -da.

What is duruyor? Why is it used instead of a copula like -dir?

Duruyor is the present-continuous form of the verb durmak, which literally means to stand or to stop. Here it’s used like to be situated or to be standing. It’s built from the root dur- plus the progressive suffix -yor (dur-yor). Turkish does have the copula -dir, but in everyday speech durmak in the progressive is more natural when describing location.

Why is the verb duruyor at the end of the sentence?

Turkish follows Subject–Object–Verb (SOV) order. Here Kahverengi çanta (subject) masada (adverbial/locative) duruyor (verb).

How would I change this sentence to ask Is the brown bag on the table? in Turkish?

Add the question particle mı after masada and keep the verb at the end:
Kahverengi çanta masada mı duruyor?
The particle harmonizes (mı/mi/mu/mü) based on the preceding vowel; since masada ends in a, you use mı.

How would I say in the house instead of on the table?

Use ev (house) plus the locative suffix -de (because e is a front vowel): evde.
So: Kahverengi çanta evde duruyor.
(The brown bag is in the house.)

How do I put this sentence in the past tense?

For past continuous, replace -yor with -yor-du (harmonizing to -yordu):
Kahverengi çanta masada duruyordu.
(The brown bag was on the table.)
For simple past you could use durdu:
Kahverengi çanta masada durdu.
(Here it implies the bag came to a stop on the table rather than just “was located.”)