Questions & Answers about Polis kahve içiyor.
Why does polis mean "the police officer" instead of "the police" in general?
In Turkish, polis refers to a single police officer. Because it is singular here, the verb içiyor is also in the singular form. If we wanted to talk about multiple police officers, we would use the plural form polisler.
How do we build the word içiyor for this lesson's present continuous tense?
The root of the verb "to drink" is iç-, which ends in a consonant. To add the present continuous suffix -yor, we need a connecting vowel. Following the rules of 4-way vowel harmony, the vowel i in iç- tells us to use i as the connector. So, iç- + i + yor becomes içiyor.
Why doesn't kahve have an ending, like kahveyi?
When a direct object is general or indefinite (meaning "coffee" instead of "the coffee"), it stays in its plain dictionary form. Since the officer is drinking coffee in general, we just use kahve without any special object endings.
Why is there no personal ending at the very end of içiyor?
In Turkish, the third-person singular (he, she, or it) doesn't take a personal suffix. The word içiyor by itself means "he/she/it is drinking." Since polis acts as a "he" or "she" here, we don't need to add anything after the -yor suffix.
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