Ben göl kenarında kahvaltı yapıyorum.

I am having breakfast by the lake.

Breakdown of Ben göl kenarında kahvaltı yapıyorum.

• ben: I
• kahvaltı yapmak: to have breakfast
• göl kenarında: by the lake

Questions & Answers about Ben göl kenarında kahvaltı yapıyorum.

How is kenarında formed? What do its suffixes mean?

kenar means “edge.” In kenarında you actually have two suffixes:

• -ı is the 3rd-person singular possessive (“its”), linking kenar to göl (“lake”).
• -nda is the locative case ending (“at/on”).

Putting them together (with the buffer n and vowel harmony) gives:
kenar + ı + nda → kenarında (“at its edge”).

Why is it göl kenarında instead of gölde kenarda?

In Turkish compounds like “lake edge,” the first noun stays unmarked and the case suffix attaches to the second noun. So you treat göl kenar (“lake edge”) as one phrase, then add the possessive+locative to kenar:
göl kenar + ı + nda → göl kenarında.

Saying gölde kenarda would be like marking göl with locative and then again marking kenar, which sounds redundant and isn’t the normal pattern.

What’s the difference between göl kenarında and gölün kenarında?

• gölün kenarında explicitly marks “lake” with the genitive -ün (“of the lake”) and then “edge” with possessive+locative: kenar + ı + nda → kenarında.
• göl kenarında skips the genitive on göl, treating göl kenar as a compound.