Learn Hardcore Turkish: Tarçınlı çorba lezzetli.

In Turkish, the suffix -lI (which appears as -lı, -li, -lu, or -lü by vowel harmony) attaches to a noun to form an adjective meaning “with …”. Here tarçın means “cinnamon,” so tarçınlı literally means “with cinnamon.”

Why is the suffix written -lı and not -li in tarçınlı?

Turkish vowel harmony forces the suffix vowel to match the last vowel of the root word. Tarçın ends in the back unrounded vowel ı, so the suffix also uses the back unrounded -lı rather than -li.

Why is there no “to be” verb in Tarçınlı çorba lezzetli?

In Turkish, the present‐tense copula (“is/am/are”) is usually omitted in nominal or adjectival sentences. You simply state Subject + Predicate Adjective, and it’s understood as “Subject is Predicate.”

How is the word order for adjectives and nouns in Turkish?

– Attributive adjectives (ones that directly modify a noun) always precede the noun: for example lezzetli tarçınlı çorba means “tasty cinnamon soup.”
– When an adjective serves as the predicate of a sentence, it follows the noun (and there is no separate “to be” verb): Tarçınlı çorba lezzetli.

Why does lezzetli come after çorba rather than before it?

Here lezzetli is not part of the noun phrase but the predicate of the sentence (“… is tasty”). Predicative adjectives follow the noun in Turkish.

How do you turn this statement into a question: “Is the cinnamon soup tasty?”

Add the question particle mi right after the adjective, observing vowel harmony and separated by a space:
Tarçınlı çorba lezzetli mi?

What’s the difference between the Turkish letters i and ı, as in tarçınlı?

Turkish distinguishes between dotted i (pronounced [i], like the “ee” in “see”) and dotless ı (pronounced [ɯ], a back unrounded vowel with no exact English equivalent). In tarçınlı, both instances of ı are the dotless back vowel.

Why doesn’t çorba have a plural ending or a case suffix here?

It’s singular and serving as the nominative subject of a simple nominal sentence. Turkish does not require a case ending on a noun in this role, and you only pluralize if you explicitly mean “soups.”

Could you say tarçınlı lezzetli çorba instead?

Grammatically you can stack adjectives before a noun, but Turkish has a natural ordering: opinion adjectives (like lezzetli) usually come closer to the noun, so lezzetli tarçınlı çorba is more idiomatic than tarçınlı lezzetli çorba.