Questions & Answers about Bu elli sekiz avukat çok genç.
How do you form a number like elli sekiz in Turkish?
It works exactly like English! You just take the tens word, elli (fifty), and put the unit right after it, sekiz (eight), with a space in between.
The translation says 'fifty-eight lawyers', but the Turkish word is avukat instead of the plural avukatlar. Why?
In Turkish, whenever you use a number greater than one before a noun, the noun stays in its singular form. Since elli sekiz already tells us there is more than one, adding a plural ending to avukat isn't needed and is actually incorrect.
Why does the sentence start with Bu (this) instead of the plural Bunlar (these)?
Turkish doesn't use the plural form of 'this' when it's acting as an adjective pointing to a specific noun. You always use the singular Bu when describing the noun directly, even if there are fifty-eight of them!
Where is the word for 'are' in this sentence?
There isn't one! In Turkish, the 'to be' verb (am/is/are) for the third person (he/she/it/they) doesn't always need a visible suffix. Simply ending the sentence with the adjective genç (young) is enough to mean 'are young'.