Breakdown of Ağır taş suyun içinde hemen batar.
su
water
iç
inside
ağır
heavy
hemen
immediately / right away
Questions & Answers about Ağır taş suyun içinde hemen batar.
How is the verb batar formed, and why are we using this tense?
The verb root is bat (from batmak, to sink). Because it is a single-syllable root ending in a consonant, the aorist (simple present) suffix is -ar or -er. Vowel harmony makes it -ar, giving us batar. We use the aorist tense here because it describes a general, timeless fact of nature.
Why does the sentence use suyun içinde instead of just suda (in water)?
While suda just means 'in water', suyun içinde literally means 'at the inside of the water'. Turkish uses this genitive-possessive structure (suyun + iç-i-n-de) to emphasize being physically submerged inside something, which perfectly matches the verb batmak (to sink).
Wait, why is the genitive form of water suyun? Shouldn't it be sunun with an n buffer?
Normally, yes! Nouns ending in a vowel usually take an n buffer for the genitive case (like arabanın). However, the word su (water) is a famous exception in Turkish. It takes a y buffer instead of an n for almost all of its suffixes, making it suyun.
What is the purpose of the n in the word içinde?