Questions & Answers about Konuşan, yönetmen.
How does konuşan mean "the one speaking" if there is no word for "person" or "one"?
The verb konuşmak (to speak) has the relative suffix -an added to it. Usually, this acts like an adjective, as in konuşan kadın (the speaking woman / the woman who speaks). However, in Turkish, you can completely drop the noun! When you do this, the word with -an becomes a noun itself, meaning "the one who..." or "the person who...". So, konuşan standing alone means "the one speaking".
Why is there a comma after konuşan?
The comma is used to clearly separate the subject of the sentence (konuşan) from what they are (yönetmen). This is especially important when you omit nouns. Without the comma, a reader might briefly think you are trying to say konuşan yönetmen (the speaking director / the director who is speaking) rather than "The one speaking is the director."
Where is the word for "is" in this sentence?
In Turkish, the present tense "is" for "he/she/it" is represented by the "to be" suffix -dir (or -tir, -dür, etc.). However, in everyday simple sentences like this one, it is very common to drop it entirely. You could say Konuşan, yönetmendir, but leaving it as just yönetmen is perfectly natural and correct.
How would I change this to say "The ones speaking are the directors"?
Because konuşan is acting as a noun here, you can add standard noun suffixes to it! To make it plural, you just add -lar. The plural sentence would become Konuşanlar, yönetmenler.
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