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Questions & Answers about Doktora telefon etmek iyi.
Why does doktor have an -a at the end?
In English, you call a person directly, but in Turkish, the verb telefon etmek requires you to "make a phone call to someone". The -a suffix is the "to" direction suffix. So, doktor becomes doktora (to the doctor).
Since we're learning about nerede (where / at where), could we use it to ask a question about the doctor in this sentence?
Not exactly! Nerede is used when an action happens at a location (using the suffix -da or -de). Because we are directing an action to the doctor (doktora), the matching question word is kime (to whom). If you wanted to say the calling happened at the doctor's office, you would use doktorda, and then nerede would be the perfect question word.
Why is the dictionary form telefon etmek used here instead of a conjugated verb?
In Turkish, verbs ending in -mak or -mek (the infinitive form) can act as nouns. Just like we say "Phoning the doctor" in English, Turkish uses the infinitive telefon etmek to name the general action of "phoning" or "to phone".
Where is the word for "is" in "is good"?
Turkish doesn't use a separate word for "is" for simple statements in the present tense. Placing the subject (doktora telefon etmek) right before the describing adjective (iyi) automatically means "Phoning the doctor is good."