Questions & Answers about Bugün durak bayağı kalabalık.
Where is the verb “to be”? Why is there no “is” in Bugün durak bayağı kalabalık?
Turkish often drops a present-tense “to be” in third-person nominal sentences. The adjective serves as the predicate:
- durak (subject) + bayağı (intensifier) + kalabalık (predicate adjective) = “the stop is quite crowded.” There is no visible copula in third person singular/plural present. For 1st/2nd person you do see personal endings (e.g., yorgunum, yorgunsun). A formal/inferential ending -dır/-dir can appear (see below).
Shouldn’t it be durakta (at the stop) instead of durak?
Both can be correct but they say slightly different things:
- Bugün durak bayağı kalabalık. “The stop is quite crowded.” The stop itself is the topic; the adjective describes its state.
- Bugün durakta kalabalık var. “There is a crowd at the stop today.” Locative -ta/-te pairs well with existential var/yok.
- You can also say: Bugün durakta çok kişi/insan var. Avoid forms like Durakta çok kalabalık var; prefer büyük bir kalabalık var or use an adjective predicate: Durak çok kalabalık.
What exactly does bayağı mean here?
Here bayağı is an adverb meaning “quite/pretty/rather,” a fairly strong intensifier but softer than çok (very). Rough scale (from milder to stronger, context-dependent): biraz < epey/oldukça/hayli ≈ bayağı < çok/çok fazla. It’s common and colloquial-neutral in speech.