Breakdown of Yeni roman okurlar tarafından beğenildi.
yeni
new
roman
novel
beğenmek
to like, to admire
tarafından
by (agent in passive voice)
Questions & Answers about Yeni roman okurlar tarafından beğenildi.
How exactly does "tarafından" mean "by" in this sentence?
In passive sentences, the doer of the action (the agent) is expressed using the word tarafından right after the noun. It is built from the word taraf (side) and literally translates to "from the side of." So, okurlar tarafından literally means "from the side of the readers," which is how Turkish expresses "by the readers."
Since this lesson also covers the "-cE" suffix, could we use that here instead?
Yes, you could! You could write this as okurlarca instead of okurlar tarafından. Both mean "by the readers." However, tarafından is generally preferred in everyday spoken Turkish when referring to specific people, while the -cE suffix (which becomes -ca here due to vowel harmony) can sound a bit more formal, like something you'd read in a newspaper or a literary review.
How is the verb "beğenildi" built to mean "was liked"?
The root verb is beğenmek (to like). To make it passive, we add the passive suffix -il, giving us beğenilmek (to be liked). Finally, the standard definite past tense suffix -di is added to match the third-person singular subject, creating beğenildi (was liked).
If the novel is the thing being liked, why doesn't "roman" have an accusative suffix?