Breakdown of Çocuklar da mutlu.
çocuk
child
mutlu
happy
de
too, also (de/da) / even if (concessive particle after conditional) / and (linking clauses)
Questions & Answers about Çocuklar da mutlu.
Why is the plural suffix -lar instead of -ler for çocuklar?
Turkish uses vowel harmony. The last vowel in çocuk is a back vowel (u), so it takes the back vowel plural suffix -lar.
Why is da written as a separate word? I thought -da means "in" or "at".
You are thinking of the location suffix, which attaches directly to words (like çocuklarda, meaning "in/on the children"). When da or de is written as a separate word, it means "also" or "too". So çocuklar da means "the children too".
Where is the word for "are" in this sentence?
Turkish doesn't have a standalone word for "is" or "are". For the third person (he, she, it, they), the "is/are" meaning is simply understood from the fact that you are linking a subject to an adjective. You are literally saying "Children too happy".
Since the subject is plural, could we say mutlular?
Yes, you can say mutlular. However, when a human subject is explicitly stated and already has the plural suffix (like çocuklar), it is very common and completely correct to leave the plural suffix off the adjective at the end of the sentence.
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