Breakdown of Şehre vapurla dönüyorlar.
şehir
city
dönmek
to return
ile
with / by / and (linking nouns)
vapur
ferry
Questions & Answers about Şehre vapurla dönüyorlar.
How does "by ferry" become vapurla?
It uses the suffix -la, which is the attached version of the word ile (with / by means of). When talking about modes of transportation, Turkish uses this suffix to mean "by". Because vapur ends in a consonant and its last vowel is a back vowel (u), 2-way vowel harmony dictates that we use -la instead of -le.
Can we write vapur ile as two separate words instead?
Yes, you can! vapur ile and vapurla mean exactly the same thing and are both grammatically correct. However, attaching it as the suffix -la or -le is much more common in everyday spoken and written Turkish.
Why is the word for city spelled şehre instead of şehire?
The dictionary word for city is şehir. However, Turkish has a vowel drop rule where certain two-syllable words lose their second vowel when a suffix starting with a vowel is added to them. When we add the direction suffix -e (to), şehir loses its i and becomes şehre.
Why do we add the -e ending to make it şehre?