Vakıf öğrencilere yardım ediyor.

The foundation helps students.

Breakdown of Vakıf öğrencilere yardım ediyor.

• yardım etmek: to help
• öğrenci: the student
• vakıf: the foundation

Questions & Answers about Vakıf öğrencilere yardım ediyor.

What case is öğrencilere in, and why does yardım etmek require that case?

Öğrencilere is in the dative case, marked by the suffix -e. In Turkish, the verb yardım etmek (“to help”) takes its object in the dative, meaning “to the students.” So öğrenciler (“students”) → öğrencilere (“to the students”).

Why is öğrenciler plural here, and what if I meant just one student?

The suffix -ler makes öğrenci (“student”) plural: öğrenciler (“students”). If you meant a single student, you’d say öğrenciye (singular dative) instead of öğrencilere.

Explain the structure of yardım ediyor. How is it built from yardım etmek?

Yardım etmek is a compound of the noun yardım (“help”) + the verb etmek (“to do”). To form the present continuous for 3rd-person singular:

1. Take the stem et-
2. Add the present-continuous suffix -iyor (with vowel harmony → ediyor)
3. Prepend the noun: yardım
   • ediyor = yardım ediyor (“is helping”).

Why doesn’t Vakıf have any suffix, and how do we know it’s the subject?

In Turkish, the nominative case (basic dictionary form) is unmarked. Vakıf appears without a suffix because it’s the subject. Subjects in the nominative usually carry no extra ending.

What is the word order in Turkish, and how does this sentence follow it?

Turkish is typically Subject-Object-Verb (SOV). Here we have:
Subject = Vakıf
Object (dative) = öğrencilere
Verb phrase = yardım ediyor
In English (SVO) it becomes “The foundation is helping the students.”

How would you turn this into a yes/no question: “Does the foundation help the students?”

Add the question particle -mı/-mi/-mu/-mü after the verb, matching vowel harmony. Since ediyor ends in a consonant plus “o” (a back vowel), you use mu:
Vakıf öğrencilere yardım ediyor mu?