Breakdown of Kedi de evde.
ev
house
kedi
cat
de
too, also (de/da) / even if (concessive particle after conditional) / and (linking clauses)
Questions & Answers about Kedi de evde.
Why is 'de' used twice in this sentence, but one is attached to a word and the other isn't?
This sentence perfectly shows the two different uses of de / da in Turkish! The first one, written as a separate word (Kedi de), means 'too' or 'also'. The second one, attached directly to the word (evde), is the location suffix meaning 'in', 'at', or 'on' (meaning 'at home').
How do I know whether to use 'de' or 'da' for the separate word meaning 'too'?
Just like suffixes, the separate word de / da follows vowel harmony based on the word right before it. Since kedi ends with an 'i' (a front vowel), we use de. If the previous word ended with a back vowel like 'a' or 'o' (for example, araba), we would use da.
Where is the verb for 'is' in this sentence?
In Turkish, you do not need a verb like 'to be' (am/is/are) for simple present tense statements about 'he', 'she', 'it', or a specific noun. Saying Kedi evde is completely enough to mean 'The cat is at home'.
Why does the separate de come right after Kedi?
The word de / da emphasizes the word it immediately follows. Because it comes right after Kedi, it means 'The cat (just like the dog or the person) is at home.' If you wanted to say the cat is at home in addition to being somewhere else, you would put the word after home: Kedi evde de.
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