Learn Hardcore Turkish: Kedi arka kapıda gizleniyor. - The cat is hiding at the back door.

Turkish does not have articles like the or a. Whether a noun is definite or indefinite is shown by context or by using bir (“one/a”) before it. If you want to say “a cat,” you’d say bir kedi. Leaving kedi on its own simply means “(a) cat” or “the cat,” depending on the situation.

Why isn’t kedi marked with any case ending here?

In Turkish, the subject of an intransitive verb stays in the nominative case, which is unmarked. Case endings appear on objects or on nouns showing location, possession, direction, etc., but subjects of sentences like this remain as just kedi.

What role does the -da in kapıda play?

The suffix -da is the locative case, which you can think of as “in/at/on” in English. So kapıda literally means “at the door” or “on the door,” here specifying the location (“at the back door”).

How did we decide on the exact form -da (instead of -de, -ta or -te) for kapıda?

Two phonological rules apply:

Vowel harmony: if the last vowel of the stem is a back vowel (a, ı, o, u), the locative takes -a; if it’s a front vowel (e, i, ö, ü), it takes -e. kapı ends in ı, so we pick -a.
Consonant voicing: since kapı ends in a vowel, we keep the voiced consonant d (it would become t only after a final voiceless consonant).

Why is the sentence ordered kedi – arka kapıda – gizleniyor rather than some English order?

Turkish is fundamentally Subject-Object-Verb (S-O-V), and locative/temporal phrases often sit right before the verb. In our example:
• Subject = kedi
• Location phrase = arka kapıda
• Verb = gizleniyor

You could shift arka kapıda for emphasis, but the verb usually stays at the end.

What is the structure of the verb gizleniyor?

It breaks down into:
• Root gizle (“to hide”)
• Middle/passive suffix -n, turning it roughly into “hide oneself”
• Present-continuous tense suffix -iyor
• (No extra ending) because third-person singular doesn’t require a separate suffix in this tense

So gizle + n + iyor = gizleniyor (“is hiding [itself]”).

Why isn’t there a separate pronoun like o (“he/it”) before gizleniyor?

Turkish is a pro-drop language: if the person/number is clear from the verb ending, you drop the pronoun. Here, the lack of an extra ending on -iyor signals third-person singular, so o (“he/it”) is unnecessary.

What’s the difference between gizlemek and gizlenmek, and why do we use gizlenmek here?

• gizlemek is a transitive verb: “to hide (something/someone).” You’d say “he hides the treasure” as hazineyi gizler.
• gizlenmek is the middle/passive form: “to hide oneself” or “to be hidden.”

Since the cat is hiding itself (not hiding something else), we use gizlenmek, yielding gizleniyor.