Questions & Answers about Adam sokakta su satıyor.
How is the present continuous tense formed in satıyor?
The verb root is sat- (to sell). Since it ends in a consonant, we must add a vowel before the continuous suffix -yor. Following 4-way vowel harmony, the 'a' in sat- means we use 'ı', making the full ending -ıyor. Because the subject is third-person singular (the man), we do not need to add a personal ending.
Why does sokakta end in -ta instead of the usual -da for 'in'?
The root word is sokak (street), which ends in the hard consonant 'k'. When a word ends in a hard consonant, the 'd' in the locative suffix (-da or -de) changes to a 't' to match it. That is why it becomes sokakta instead of sokakda.
Why doesn't su have a suffix to show it is the object of the sentence?
We only add a direct object suffix (the accusative case) when we are talking about a specific thing, like 'the water'. Because the man is just selling 'water' in general, su stays in its plain dictionary form and is placed directly in front of the verb.
Why is the place (sokakta) put before the object (su)?
The standard Turkish word order is Subject-Place-Object-Verb. The subject is adam (the man), the place is sokakta (in the street), the object is su (water), and the verb is satıyor (is selling). In Turkish, the word placed right before the verb receives the main focus, so placing su there emphasizes exactly what he is selling.
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