Learn Turkish: O adam tilki gibi kurnaz. - That man is cunning like a fox.

O adam tilki gibi kurnaz.

That man is cunning like a fox.

Breakdown of O adam tilki gibi kurnaz.

Questions & Answers about O adam tilki gibi kurnaz.

Why does gibi come after tilki instead of before it?

In Turkish, gibi is a postposition, which means it comes after the word it relates to. While English uses the preposition 'like' before the noun ('like a fox'), Turkish places it after: tilki gibi (literally 'fox like').

Does the word tilki need any special case endings before gibi?

Not when it is a regular noun! Regular nouns stay in their bare (dictionary) form before gibi. However, remember that if you use a pronoun, it usually needs the genitive (possessive) ending, like benim gibi (like me) or onun gibi (like him).

Why is kurnaz placed at the very end of the sentence?

In Turkish, the descriptive adjective in a comparison usually comes right after the 'like' phrase. The structure is Subject (O adam) + Comparison (tilki gibi) + Adjective (kurnaz). Think of it as saying 'That man is fox-like cunning.'

How do we know O means 'That' here and not 'He'?

Because it sits directly next to a noun (adam) without a comma. If you wanted to say 'He is a man as cunning as a fox,' you would use a comma to separate the subject: O, tilki gibi kurnaz bir adam. Without the comma, O acts as a pointing word meaning 'That man'.