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Bu su buz gibi soğuk.

Bu su buz gibi soğuk.
This water is cold like ice.
From Lesson 88:Comparisons of similarity (gibi)·Turkish

Breakdown of Bu su buz gibi soğuk.

bu
this
su
water
soğuk
cold
gibi
like (similar to)
buz
ice

Questions & Answers about Bu su buz gibi soğuk.

Why does gibi come after buz instead of before it?
In Turkish, gibi is a postposition. This means it works just like an English preposition but is placed after the word it connects to. So instead of saying 'like ice', you say buz gibi (ice like).
Does buz need a suffix here before gibi?
No, regular nouns like buz (ice) stay in their basic, dictionary form before gibi. You only need to add a genitive suffix when using gibi with personal pronouns, such as benim gibi (like me).
Why is soğuk placed at the very end of the sentence?
The phrase buz gibi describes exactly how cold the water is. In Turkish, descriptive words and phrases come before the word they describe. So buz gibi soğuk literally means 'ice-like cold', which is just like saying 'ice-cold' in English.
Where is the word for 'is' in this sentence?
In Turkish, 'is' or 'are' is usually attached to the end of the sentence as a suffix. However, for the third person (he, she, it, or 'this water'), the suffix is often completely invisible in everyday speech. Therefore, soğuk by itself means 'is cold' here.

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