Questions & Answers about Kadın ne deri kemer ne kaban alıyor.
Why is the verb alıyor (is buying) positive when the sentence means 'neither... nor'?
This is a very important rule for ne... ne.... Even though the overall meaning is negative, the verb in Turkish must remain positive. So we say alıyor (is buying) instead of almıyor (is not buying).
Can I add de to the second ne in this sentence?
Yes! You will often see ne... ne de... used for 'neither... nor...'. Saying Kadın ne deri kemer ne de kaban alıyor means exactly the same thing and sounds very natural.
Why don't deri kemer (leather belt) or kaban (coat) have the accusative case ending?
They don't take the accusative ending because the woman isn't buying specific items (like 'the' coat or 'the' leather belt). They are general, indefinite objects, so they stay in their bare dictionary form.
Shouldn't 'leather belt' be a noun compound like deri kemeri?
When describing what material something is made of in Turkish (like leather, gold, or wood), you just put the material directly before the object. It acts like a regular adjective, so you don't add the possessive suffix to the second word. It is just deri kemer.