Questions & Answers about Hangi hayvan en ağır?
How do you say "the" in "the heaviest"?
Turkish doesn't have a word for "the". To make a superlative (like "the heaviest" or "the biggest"), you simply put en (meaning "most") right before the adjective. So, en ağır literally means "most heavy" but translates to "the heaviest".
Why isn't there a word for "is" at the end of the sentence?
For the third person ("he", "she", or "it" — in this case, the animal), Turkish often leaves out the "is" suffix in everyday speech. The sentence literally reads "Which animal most heavy?" The "is" is simply understood. You could say ağırdır, but that sounds very formal.
Why doesn't en ağır come before hayvan if adjectives usually go before nouns?
Because en ağır is the main point of the sentence, not just a description attached to a noun. If you wanted to say the phrase "the heaviest animal", it would be en ağır hayvan. But here, you are asking "Which animal [is] the heaviest?", so en ağır acts as the sentence's verb equivalent and goes at the end.
How do I pronounce the ğ in ağır?
The ğ (soft g) is silent, but it lengthens the vowel right before it. In ağır, it stretches the a sound and connects smoothly into the ı, sounding a bit like "ah-ur".