Breakdown of Şantiye dün kapatıldı.
kapatmak
to turn off / to close
dün
yesterday
şantiye
construction site
Questions & Answers about Şantiye dün kapatıldı.
How is the passive voice built in the word kapatıldı?
The base verb is kapatmak (to close). To make it passive, we drop the -mak and add the passive suffix -ıl, creating kapatılmak (to be closed). Then we add the simple past tense suffix -dı for the "it" form, resulting in kapatıldı (it was closed).
Why does the passive suffix take the form -ıl here instead of -ın?
The passive suffix changes based on the final letter of the verb root. If the root ends in a vowel, we just add -n. If it ends in the letter L, we add -ın (or -in, -un, -ün). For all other consonants, like the T at the end of kapat, we use -ıl (or -il, -ul, -ül following vowel harmony).
If the construction site is the thing being closed, why isn't it şantiyeyi with the accusative case?
In a passive sentence, the thing receiving the action becomes the grammatical subject. Because şantiye is the subject here, it stays in the plain, dictionary form (nominative case) and does not take the accusative object marker.
I sometimes see kapamak for "to close." Could we use that here instead?
Yes, kapamak and kapatmak both mean "to close." If we used kapamak, the passive form would be kapandı (because the root ends in a vowel). However, kapatmak and its passive kapatıldı are much more common when talking about officially shutting down places, businesses, or roads.
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