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Questions & Answers about Lahana çorbası sağlıklı.
Why isn’t there a verb like to be (is) in Lahana çorbası sağlıklı?
In Turkish present-tense statements the copula is usually dropped. You simply put the subject and its descriptor side by side.
- Lahana çorbası sağlıklı literally “cabbage soup healthy.”
- If you want the formal copula you add -dır: Lahana çorbası sağlıklıdır.
Why does sağlıklı come after lahana çorbası? Aren’t adjectives supposed to precede nouns?
When an adjective modifies a noun directly, it indeed comes before (e.g. sağlıklı çorba = healthy soup). But here sağlıklı is used predicatively—like saying “is healthy.” In predicates Turkish places the noun first, then the adjective.
What is the structure of lahana çorbası? Why is there a -sı at the end of çorba?
This is a noun-noun compound meaning “cabbage soup.” The second noun takes a possessive suffix to show “of cabbage.”
- çorba
- 3rd-person singular possessor -sı (with vowel harmony) → çorbası
- So literally “its soup” → “soup of cabbage.”
Why is lahana unmarked? Shouldn’t it have a suffix too?
In Turkish compounds the first noun stays in its bare form; only the second noun gets the possessive ending. Thus lahana remains unchanged, and çorba becomes çorbası.
Why isn’t there an article before lahana çorbası? How would I say “a cabbage soup is healthy”?
Turkish has no articles equivalent to a or the. Generic statements simply omit them. If you insist on “a,” you can add bir:
- Bir lahana çorbası sağlıklı.
But that usually means “one cabbage soup is healthy” rather than a general truth.
How do I make the sentence negative?
Insert değil after the adjective:
- Lahana çorbası sağlıklı değil. (“Cabbage soup is not healthy.”)
If you use the copula -dır, it becomes sağlıklı değildir.
How would I pluralize it to say “Cabbage soups are healthy”?
Pluralize the subject with -lar and keep the possessive -ı on çorba:
- Lahana çorbaları sağlıklı.
You can add the copula too: Lahana çorbaları sağlıklıdır.