Questions & Answers about Siz balık alın, et almayın.
Why is the verb alın (buy) at the end of the phrase instead of the middle?
In Turkish, the standard word order is Subject-Object-Verb (SOV). So, instead of saying "You buy fish" (Subject-Verb-Object) like in English, we say Siz balık alın (You fish buy). The verb almost always comes at the very end of its clause.
Why isn't siz (you) repeated before et almayın?
Since siz is already established as the subject in the first half of the sentence, it carries over to the second half. The verb ending -ın in almayın also makes it clear that we are still talking to "you," so repeating siz isn't necessary.
What is the -ın ending on alın and almayın?
It is the formal or plural "you" ending for commands. The root verb is al (buy). If you were speaking casually to one friend, you would just say al (buy) and alma (don't buy). Because it ends in -ın (or -yın), we know we are speaking formally or to a group of people.
How does the word almayın become negative?
In Turkish, you make a verb negative by adding -ma or -me right after the verb root. Here, the root is al. Adding -ma makes it alma (don't buy). Then we add the formal/plural "you" ending -ın. Because two vowels can't sit next to each other here, the letter y acts as a bridge, resulting in almayın.
Why don't the objects balık (fish) and et (meat) have any extra endings on them?
When you are talking about a general category of things rather than a specific item, the object stays in its plain dictionary form. Since the sentence means "buy fish in general" (not the specific fish), balık and et do not need any special object endings.
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