Kum rüzgarda uçuyor.

The sand is flying in the wind.

Breakdown of Kum rüzgarda uçuyor.

• rüzgar: the wind
• uçmak: to fly
• -da: in
• kum: the sand

Questions & Answers about Kum rüzgarda uçuyor.

Why is there no article before kum in this sentence?

Turkish does not use definite or indefinite articles like the or a. A noun like kum can mean “sand,” “the sand,” or “some sand” depending on context, without any extra word.

What does the suffix -da in rüzgarda signify?

The -da suffix is the locative case marker, meaning “in,” “at,” or “on.” So rüzgarda literally means “in the wind.”

Why is it rüzgarda (“in the wind”) and not rüzgarla (“with the wind”)?

-la/-le is the instrumental case (“with”), which would suggest the wind is an instrument or companion. Here we want to express location or medium (“the sand is flying in the wind”), so we use the locative -da.

Could we use the ablative -dan and say rüzgardan?

The ablative -dan means “from.” Rüzgardan uçuyor would imply “it is flying away from the wind,” which isn’t the intended meaning. We need locative -da to express “in the wind.”

How is the verb uçuyor formed, and what does it mean exactly?