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Questions & Answers about Arabanın rengi ne?
Why does araba become arabanın instead of just arabaın?
The suffix for "of" or "'s" (the genitive case) is usually -ın, -in, -un, or -ün. However, because araba ends in a vowel, we must use the buffer letter -n- to keep the two vowels from crashing into each other. So, it becomes araba + n + ın (arabanın).
If arabanın already means "the car's", why do we also need a suffix on rengi?
In Turkish possessive phrases, you must mark both the owner and the owned object. Arabanın gets the genitive (owner) suffix, and the owned object gets a possessive suffix. For a third-person owner like "the car", the possessive suffix is -i (or -ı, -u, -ü depending on vowel harmony).
The dictionary word for "color" is renk. Why does it change to rengi here?
This happens because of consonant mutation. When you add a suffix that starts with a vowel (like the possessive -i) to a word ending in p, ç, t, or k, that final letter usually softens. Here, the hard k at the end of renk changes to a softer g when the -i is attached.