Questions & Answers about Doktor onun gözüne bakıyor.
Why is there an 'n' in the middle of gözüne?
This is the buffer letter n. In Turkish, when you add a case suffix (like the direction suffix -e for 'to' or 'into') right after a 3rd person possessive suffix (like the -ü in gözü, meaning 'his eye'), you must separate them with the letter n. So, it becomes göz (eye) + ü (his) + n (buffer) + e (to/into).
The English translation says 'looking into', but how is 'into' expressed here?
In Turkish, the verb bakmak (to look) always takes the dative case (the 'to/towards' suffix, which is -a or -e). You don't need a separate preposition for 'into' or 'at'. By adding -e to the end of gözün, you are literally saying the doctor is looking 'to' his eye.
Why does göz take the suffix -ü instead of -i or -u?
This is due to 4-way vowel harmony. Because the only vowel in the root word göz is ö, the possessive suffix must use the vowel ü. This gives us gözü (his/her eye).
Could the sentence drop the word onun and still mean the same thing?
Yes! Because the possessive suffix -ü in gözüne already tells us it is 'his' or 'her' eye, the word onun (his/her) is optional. Including it just adds emphasis or makes it extra clear who the eye belongs to in case it isn't obvious from the context.
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