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Questions & Answers about Bilet gişesi kapalı.
Why is there no word for is (“to be”) in Bilet gişesi kapalı?
In Turkish the copula in the present tense is usually omitted. An adjective can directly follow a noun to express a state of being. If you need to be more formal or explicit you can add the suffix -dır to the adjective:
Bilet gişesi kapalıdır (The ticket booth is closed).
Why don’t we see the or a in the sentence?
Turkish does not have articles like the or a. Definiteness or indefiniteness is inferred from context. Here you understand it’s the ticket booth you’re dealing with, so no article is needed.
What does the -si ending in gişesi mean?
That -si is the third-person singular possessive suffix. In noun–noun compounds such as bilet gişesi (ticket booth), the second noun takes a possessive suffix to show it “belongs” to or is “of” the first noun.
Why doesn’t bilet take a genitive suffix to match gişesi?
In Turkish compound nouns the first noun stays in its base (nominative) form, and only the second noun gets the possessive suffix. So instead of biletin gişesi, you simply say bilet gişesi.
Why is kapalı an adjective here and not a verb?
Kapalı is the adjectival form (a past participle) meaning closed. The verb to close is kapamak, but when you describe something as “closed” you use kapalı.
Why are there two different i letters in gişe versus kapalı?
Turkish has two distinct i-type letters:
• i (dotted) as in gişe
• ı (dotless) as in kapalı
They represent different vowel sounds and are not interchangeable.
How would you say “The ticket booths are closed” in Turkish?
You pluralize the compound’s second noun and leave the adjective unchanged (adjectives in Turkish don’t agree in number):
Bilet gişeleri kapalı
This literally reads “Ticket booths closed.”