Questions & Answers about Otobüste on iki kadın var.
Why is the suffix on otobüs written as -te instead of -de?
The suffix for "in" or "on" is normally -da or -de. However, because otobüs ends in a hard, voiceless consonant (s), the d at the start of the suffix changes to a t to make it easier to pronounce together. This is called consonant assimilation. You can remember the hard consonants that cause this change with the classic memory trick "Fıstıkçı Şahap" (every consonant in that phrase forces a following d to become a t).
Why is the word for woman (kadın) singular when there are twelve of them?
In Turkish, whenever you put a specific number before a noun, you do not use the plural suffix (-lar or -ler). The number itself already tells us there is more than one, so saying on iki kadın is correct, and saying on iki kadınlar would sound wrong to a native speaker.
Is the number twelve really formed by just saying "ten two"?
Yes! Building numbers in Turkish is very logical. For the teens, you just say the word for ten (on) followed by the single digit. So 12 is on iki ("ten two"), 15 is on beş, and so on.
Why does the word var go at the very end of the sentence?
The word var means "there is" or "there are". In Turkish, the main verb or the word expressing existence (var or its opposite, yok) almost always sits at the very end of the sentence. A typical "there is" sentence follows the order: Location (otobüste) + Subject (on iki kadın) + Existence (var).
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