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Questions & Answers about Onun hobisi yüzmek.
Why is it hobisi and not just hobii?
The word for hobby is hobi. Because it belongs to him (onun), we need to add the 3rd person possessive suffix. Due to vowel harmony, that suffix is -i. However, Turkish doesn't like two vowels right next to each other. When a word ends in a vowel and we add a 3rd person possessive suffix, we use the buffer letter s in between. So, hobi + s + i becomes hobisi.
How do we know onun means "his" and not "her"?
We don't! Turkish pronouns don't have gender. Onun just means "that person's" (his, her, or its). We translated it as "his" here, but depending on the context, "Her hobby is swimming" is also a perfectly correct translation.
Yüzmek usually means "to swim". Can it also mean "swimming"?
Yes! In Turkish, the infinitive dictionary form of a verb (ending in -mak or -mek) acts like a noun. So yüzmek can translate to both "to swim" and the activity of "swimming". This sentence literally reads "His hobby is to swim."
Where is the word for "is" in this sentence?
There isn't one! In simple present tense sentences stating "A is B", the "is" is often just implied in Turkish. You don't need a separate word for it here.