Questions & Answers about O kırk kalem ucuz değil.
Why is it kalem and not kalemler if there are forty of them?
In Turkish, you never add a plural suffix (-lar or -ler) to a noun if you have already stated the exact number. Since we have kırk (forty), kalem (pen) stays in its singular form. Saying kırk kalemler would be grammatically incorrect.
Is kırk (forty) based on the word for four (dört)?
No. Unlike English where "four" and "forty" look similar, Turkish tens do not always resemble their single-digit counterparts. While some are predictable, kırk (forty) looks completely different from dört (four). You simply have to memorize the special words for the tens!
The English translation says "Those", so why does the Turkish sentence use o instead of the plural onlar?
When pointing words like o (that/those) or bu (this/these) act as adjectives right before a noun, they never take a plural suffix. Also, because the number kırk already tells us there is more than one pen, everything else in the noun phrase stays singular.
Where is the verb "are" in ucuz değil?
Turkish does not have a standalone word for "to be" (am/is/are). Instead, it uses person endings attached to the final word. For the third person ("it is" or "they are"), the ending is often left off entirely. So ucuz değil translates perfectly to "are not cheap" in this context.