Learn Turkish: Vejetaryen davetlilerden başka herkes et yiyor. - Except for the vegetarian guests, everyone is eating meat.

On its own, başka means "other" or "different". But when it follows a noun with the ablative case suffix (like -dan or -den, which usually mean "from"), the combination -den başka means "except for" or "other than". In this sentence, davetlilerden başka translates to "except for the guests".

Can you break down the suffixes on the word davetlilerden?

It starts with the noun davet (invitation). Adding the suffix -li creates the noun davetli (invited person or guest). Then we add the plural suffix -ler to get davetliler (guests). Finally, the ablative suffix -den is added because it is required by the postposition başka.

Why is "meat" translated as et without any case suffix, like eti?

Because it is a general, indefinite direct object (they are just "eating meat"). If the sentence meant "everyone is eating THE meat" (a specific, known portion of meat), we would need the specific direct object suffix (the accusative case) and it would become eti yiyor.

The verb for "to eat" is yemek. Why does it become yiyor instead of yeyor?