Teklif belgesinin üstünde resmi bir mühür vardı.

to be

Breakdown of Teklif belgesinin üstünde resmi bir mühür vardı.

• bir: a
• teklif belgesi: the proposal document
• üstünde: on
• resmi: official
• mühür: the seal

Questions & Answers about Teklif belgesinin üstünde resmi bir mühür vardı.

What are the two suffixes in belgesinin, and what do they indicate?

belgesinin breaks down as belgesi + -nin.

• belgesi = belge (document) + -si (3rd person singular possessive “its”),
• -nin = genitive case marker “of”.
  Together belgesinin means “of the document,” here “of the proposal document.”

How is the locative case formed in üstünde, and why is there a possessive suffix too?

üstünde = üst (top) + -ü (3 sg possessive “its”) + -nde (locative case “on/at”).
Relational nouns like üst generally take a possessive before a case suffix, so üstünde means “on its top,” i.e. “on top of it.”

Could you use üstte instead of üstünde? Is there any nuance?

Yes, üstte is a valid bare form meaning “on top,” but Turkish more often uses the possessive + locative (üstünde) when referring to the top of a specific object. üstte feels more abstract or general.

What does the bir in resmi bir mühür do, and must it always be there?

bir is the indefinite article “a/an.” It marks that you’re introducing one unspecified object. You can sometimes drop it (“resmi mühür vardı”), but adding bir makes it clear you’re talking about one single seal.

Why is resmi placed before bir mühür?

In Turkish, adjectives always precede the noun, and the indefinite article bir comes immediately before the noun. So the order is [adjective] + bir + [noun] → resmi bir mühür.

Why doesn’t mühür take an accusative suffix even though it follows the verb?

In var-constructions (“there is/was”), indefinite nouns stay in the nominative case (no accusative). Only definite direct objects get the accusative suffix. Here resmi bir mühür is indefinite, so it remains bare.

What does vardı mean here, and why not use oldu or bulundu?

var expresses existence (“there is/was”). vardı is its past tense (“there was”).

• oldu means “became” or “was” in the sense of identity or change,
• bulundu means “was found” or “was located.”
  To simply state that something existed, you use vardı.

How would you translate Teklif belgesinin üstünde resmi bir mühür vardı both literally and idiomatically?

Literally: “On the proposal document’s top, there was an official seal.”
Idiomatic English: “There was an official seal on the proposal document.”

If the seal had been under the document instead of on top, how would the sentence change?

You’d swap the relational noun üst for alt and get:
Teklif belgesinin altında resmi bir mühür vardı.