Learn Turkish: Köpek arabanın önünde duruyor. - The dog is standing in front of the car.

In Turkish, spatial words like front, back, or inside use the possessive structure. You are not just saying in front of the car, you are literally saying at the car's front. Because it is the car's front, araba takes the genitive (owner) suffix -nın to become arabanın.

How is the word önünde built?

It starts with the root ön (front). First, we add the possessive suffix -ü to mean its front (önü). Next, we want to add the location suffix -de to mean at its front. Whenever we add a location suffix right after a third-person possessive suffix, we must insert the buffer letter -n-, resulting in önünde.

Why isn't the location suffix attached to the car (arabada)?

The dog is not located on or in the car itself; its location is the space in front of it. In Turkish, the location suffix -de or -da always attaches to the exact place where the subject is located, which here is the front (ön).

The dictionary says durmak means to stop. Why does it mean standing here?

The verb durmak actually means both to stop and to stand (as in, to be in a stationary position). When talking about a person, animal, or object resting in a location, duruyor translates perfectly to is standing or is situated.