Breakdown of Sonbaharda ormanın ağaçları kıpkırmızı ve sapsarı olur.
ağaç
tree
ve
and
orman
forest
olmak
to become
Questions & Answers about Sonbaharda ormanın ağaçları kıpkırmızı ve sapsarı olur.
How do the intensified adjectives kıpkırmızı and sapsarı work?
To intensify an adjective in Turkish (like saying 'bright red' or 'completely yellow'), we take the first syllable of the word up to the first vowel, add one of four consonants (m, p, r, or s), and attach it to the front of the word. For kırmızı, we take kı, add p, and get kıpkırmızı. For sarı, we take sa, add p, and get sapsarı.
Is there a specific rule for knowing whether to use m, p, r, or s when making these intensified words?
Unfortunately, there isn't a strict phonetic rule for choosing the consonant. It's mostly based on what sounds best in Turkish, so you just have to memorize the most common ones. However, p is the most common of the four consonants used for this, which is why you see it in both kıpkırmızı and sapsarı.
In the phrase ormanın ağaçları (the trees of the forest), why doesn't the ç in ağaç mutate to a c?
Normally, when a suffix starting with a vowel is added to ağaç, the ç softens to a c (like in the singular possessive ormanın ağacı). But here, the plural suffix -lar comes first. Since -lar starts with a consonant, the ç is protected and stays exactly as it is. Then we add the possessive suffix -ı to the end, giving us ağaçları.