Questions & Answers about Doktor onun başına bakıyor.
Where does the n in başına come from?
It is a buffer letter! The word for "head" is baş, and the 3rd person possessive suffix ("his" or "her") is -ı, making başı. We need to add the dative case suffix -a to say "at his head". Because we cannot put two vowels together, Turkish uses the buffer letter n between a 3rd person possessive suffix and any case suffix.
The English translation says "looking at", but why is there an -a suffix instead of the locative -da ("at/in")?
In Turkish, the verb bakmak (to look) requires the dative case, which shows direction ("to" or "towards"). So instead of looking "at" something, in Turkish you look "to" it. That is why we add the dative suffix -a to the end, resulting in başına.
Does onun specifically mean "his"?
It can mean "his", "her", or "its". Turkish pronouns do not have grammatical gender. You would know exactly whose head the doctor is looking at from the context of the conversation.
Do we have to use onun here?
Not strictly! Because the suffix -ı in başına already marks the head as belonging to a 3rd person (his/her/its), saying Doktor başına bakıyor is perfectly correct and common. Including onun here just adds a little emphasis.
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