Question 1

Why do elmaslardan and zümrütlerden have the ablative endings (-dan and -den)? Usually, those mean 'from'.

Accepted Answer

Here, the ablative case is acting as a 'partitive'. It tells us that we are talking about some of a specific, larger group. So, elmaslardan doesn't mean 'from the diamonds', it means 'some of the diamonds'. You can think of it as 'out of the group of diamonds, there are some in the box'.

Question 2

How would the sentence change if I just said Kutuda elmaslar ve zümrütler var?

Accepted Answer

If you drop the -dan and -den endings, the sentence simply means 'There are diamonds and emeralds in the box,' stating a general fact about what is inside. By adding the ablative endings, you imply there is a specific, known larger collection of these gems, and some of them are in the box.

Question 3

Why does elmaslardan take -dan but zümrütlerden takes -den?

Accepted Answer

This is a quick refresher on two-way vowel harmony. The last vowel in elmaslar is 'a' (a back vowel), so it takes the back vowel ending -dan. The last vowel in zümrütler is 'e' (a front vowel), so it takes the front vowel ending -den.

Question 4

Since there are multiple diamonds and emeralds, why is the existence word just var instead of a plural form?

Accepted Answer

var is actually an adjective meaning 'existent', not a regular verb. When we want to say 'there are', we still just use var, even if the things that exist are plural. You don't need to make it plural just because the nouns are plural.

Kutuda elmaslardan ve zümrütlerden var.

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