Questions & Answers about Atlar ve inekler ahırda uyuyordu.
The subject is plural (atlar ve inekler), so why does the verb uyuyordu have a singular ending?
In Turkish, when the subject is plural but not human (like animals or objects), the verb is almost always conjugated in the singular form. That is why we use uyuyordu instead of the plural uyuyorlardı.
How does the word uyuyordu translate to were sleeping?
This verb has two time suffixes! It starts with the verb root uyu (sleep), adds the continuous suffix -yor (which works like the English -ing), and finishes with the past tense suffix -du. Together, -yordu forms the past continuous tense, which describes an ongoing action in the past.
The verb root is uyu. Does the -yor suffix change the last vowel here?
No, but you are right to be careful! The -yor suffix drops or changes wide vowels (a or e) into narrow ones (ı, i, u, ü) at the end of a verb. Because uyu already ends in the narrow vowel u, it simply connects to -yor without any spelling changes.
Why does the word for barn become ahırda instead of ahırde?
The word for barn is ahır. To say in the barn, we add the locative suffix -da or -de. Because the last vowel in ahır is the undotted ı, major vowel harmony rules dictate we must use the suffix with the back vowel a, creating ahırda.