Questions & Answers about Ben telefonumdan fotoğrafı siliyorum.
Why do we say telefonumdan instead of just telefon or telefonum?
We want to express from my phone, so we need two suffixes:
1) -um for “my” (possessive), turning telefon into telefonum (“my phone”).
2) -dan for the ablative case (“from”), giving telefonumdan.
Order matters: in Turkish you add the possessive first, then the case ending.
Why is fotoğraf followed by -ı to become fotoğrafı?
Turkish marks a specific or known direct object with the accusative suffix -ı/-i/-u/-ü (depending on vowel harmony). Here fotoğrafı means “the photo” (a definite object). If you were deleting any photo (indefinite), you’d drop the suffix and say fotoğraf siliyorum.
How does Turkish show “the” and “a” since there are no articles?
There are indeed no separate words for the or a. Instead:
- Indefinite objects (a/an) are unmarked: kitap okuyorum (“I’m reading a book”).
- Definite objects (the) take the accusative: kitabı okuyorum (“I’m reading the book”).
What tense and aspect is siliyorum, and why not sildim or silerim?