Questions & Answers about Çocuk bir elma yiyor.
Why is the verb yiyor? Isn't the root for eating ye-?
You are exactly right! The root is ye-. However, when a verb root ends in a vowel (like the e in ye-) and we add the present continuous suffix -iyor, that final vowel changes or "narrows" to make it easier to say. The e narrows to an i, giving us yiyor instead of "yeiyor".
Does bir mean "one" or "a/an" here?
Both! In Turkish, the number one (bir) doubles as the indefinite article "a" or "an". Here, bir elma translates to "an apple", but it could also mean "one apple" depending on the context.
Why isn't there a word for "the" before çocuk?
Turkish doesn't have a separate word for "the". When a noun like çocuk (child) is the subject of the sentence, we usually understand it as specific ("the child") based on the context. If we wanted to say "a child", we would add bir before it: Bir çocuk.
Why is the verb yiyor at the very end of the sentence?
Turkish usually uses a Subject-Object-Verb word order. This means the person doing the action (çocuk) comes first, the thing being acted on (bir elma) comes next, and the action itself (yiyor) goes at the end of a standard sentence.