Learn Turkish: Çiftçinin atı hızlı koşmaz. - The farmer's horse does not run fast.

We use koşmaz, which is the negative aorist (simple present) tense, to talk about general characteristics or habits. This sentence means the horse generally doesn't run fast. If we used the present continuous koşmuyor, it would mean the horse isn't running fast right at this exact moment.

How do we form the negative aorist in koşmaz?

For the 3rd person singular ("he/she/it"), the negative aorist suffix is simply -maz or -mez. Because the verb root koş- (run) has a back vowel (o), we use -maz. There is no extra personal suffix needed for the 3rd person singular.

How does the phrase çiftçinin atı (the farmer's horse) work grammatically?

This is a full possessive phrase. The owner (çiftçi) takes the genitive suffix -nin because it ends in a vowel. The owned object (at) takes the 3rd person possessive suffix -ı to link it back to the farmer.

Why doesn't the 't' in atı soften to a 'd'?

Normally, hard consonants like t often soften to d when a vowel is added (like git- becoming gidiyor). However, most single-syllable nouns in Turkish, such as at (horse) and süt (milk), are exceptions to this rule and keep their hard consonants.