Learn Turkish: Polis köpeği dumandan kurtarabildi. - The police officer was able to rescue the dog from the smoke.

It combines three parts: the verb root kurtar- (rescue), the ability suffix -abil (able to / managed to), and the past tense suffix -di (did). Because the subject is a third person (the police officer), there is no extra personal ending. Together, they form kurtarabildi.

Why does the ability suffix in kurtarabildi use an "a" (-abil) instead of an "e" (-ebil)?

This follows the rules of vowel harmony. The last vowel in the verb root kurtar- is "a", which is a back (hard) vowel. Because of this, the ability suffix must also use the back vowel "a", making it -abil rather than -ebil.

Why is the word for dog written as köpeği instead of köpek?

The dog is the direct object of the sentence—it is the specific thing being rescued. To show this, we add the accusative case suffix -i. When you add a suffix starting with a vowel to a word ending in k, the k softens to a ğ (soft g). This changes köpek into köpeği.

How do we get "from the smoke" out of the word dumandan?