Breakdown of Masada su yok, bardak var.
masa
table
su
water
var
there is / existent
yok
there is not / non-existent
bardak
glass / cup
Questions & Answers about Masada su yok, bardak var.
Why do we use yok here instead of a regular verb for "is not"?
In Turkish, to say "there is not" or "there are not", you use the special word yok. It expresses non-existence. You place it at the end of the phrase, so su yok literally translates to "water non-existent" (there is no water).
Is var the exact opposite of yok?
Yes! While yok means "there is not", var means "there is". They are a matching pair. Just like yok, var is placed at the end of its clause, so bardak var means "a glass exists" or "there is a glass".
Why does the sentence start with masada instead of the water?
In Turkish "there is / there isn't" sentences, the location usually comes first. The standard pattern is: Location (masada - on the table) + Thing (su - water) + var / yok. English starts with "There is...", but Turkish starts with where the thing is located.
What does the -da suffix on masada do?
The -da suffix is the Turkish locative case, which acts like the English prepositions "in", "on", or "at". Since masa means "table", adding -da makes it masada, meaning "on the table".
The translation says "there is a glass", but there is no word for "a" (bir) in the sentence. Why?
In Turkish, you do not always need to use bir (a/one) when just stating what is present. Saying bardak var (glass exists) perfectly translates to "there is a glass". You could say bir bardak var, but leaving it out is very natural.
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