Questions & Answers about Kedi yastığın üstünde uyuyor.
Why do we say yastığın üstünde instead of just using yastıkta?
While yastıkta means "at/in/on the pillow" in a general way, Turkish uses spatial words like üst (top) to be exact. To say "on top of the pillow", Turkish builds a possessive phrase, literally saying "at the pillow's top". We add the genitive ending -ın to yastık (the pillow's) and the possessive ending -ü to üst (its top).
Why is there a ğ in yastığın? Doesn't the word for pillow end in a k?
Yes, the dictionary word is yastık. But Turkish has a rule called consonant mutation. When you add a suffix starting with a vowel (like the -ın ending) to a hard consonant like k, it almost always softens into a "soft g" (ğ).
What is the extra n doing in the word üstünde?
Let's break down üstünde. We have üst (top) + -ü (its) + -de (at/on). Whenever you attach a case ending (like the locative -de) to a 3rd person possessive ending (like -ü), Turkish requires the buffer letter n in between them. This happens with all spatial words: içinde, altında, yanında, etc.
Why does uyuyor just take without an extra vowel before it, like in ?