Bazı balıklar zehir salgılıyor.

the fish

Breakdown of Bazı balıklar zehir salgılıyor.

• bazı: some
• zehir: the poison
• salgılamak: to secrete

Questions & Answers about Bazı balıklar zehir salgılıyor.

What does bazı mean and how is it used with nouns?

bazı means some or certain in Turkish. It always precedes a plural countable noun and makes that noun indefinite. You say bazı balıklar (some fish), never bazı balık.

Why doesn’t zehir take the accusative suffix -i (zehiri) here?

In Turkish, direct objects that are definite/specific get the accusative suffix -(y)ı/-(y)i/-(y)u/-(y)ü. Here zehir (poison) is indefinite (the fish secrete poison in general), so it stays bare, without -i.

How do you form the present‐continuous tense of salgılamak, and why is it salgılıyor?

1. Remove -mak from salgılamak → salgıla
2. Add the present‐continuous suffix -(ı)yor (vowel‐harmonized):
   salgıla
   • yor → salgılıyor
3. For 3rd person singular there is no extra personal ending after -yor.

Why use salgılıyor (present continuous) instead of the simple present (aorist) salgılar for a general fact?

The aorist (salgılar) is the default for universal truths (Some fish secrete poison). The present continuous (salgılıyor) can also state habitual or observed actions, making it sound like “you can observe these fish actually doing it.”

Why doesn’t the verb have a plural suffix -lar (i.e. salgıyorlar)?

Turkish verbs agree in person (1st/2nd/3rd) but not in number. The 3rd person ending after -yor is zero, so salgıyor works for both singular and plural subjects. The noun balıklar already shows the plurality.

Could you replace bazı with other quantifiers, and what changes?

– birkaç balık zehir salgılıyor
(‘a few fish secrete poison’; birkaç goes with a singular noun form)
– tüm balıklar zehir salgılıyor
(‘all fish secrete poison’; universal but false biologically)
– bazı balık türleri zehir salgılıyor
(‘some fish species secrete poison’; more precise scope)