Questions & Answers about Ormandaki baykuşlar gece uçabilir.
Wait, doesn't uçabilir mean "can fly"? How do we know it means "might fly" here?
You are right that the -(y)abil suffix combined with the aorist tense (here, -ir) is used for ability ("can fly"). However, Turkish uses this exact same structure to express probability or possibility ("might" or "may"). You have to rely on context to tell them apart. If we are stating a general fact about a species, it means "can". If we are guessing what these specific owls will do tonight, it means "might".
How does the word Ormandaki break down?
Why doesn't gece have a locative suffix like gecede to mean "at night"?
In Turkish, common times of day like gece (night), sabah (morning), and akşam (evening) act directly as time adverbs. You don't need to add the locative suffix -da or -de to say "at night" or "in the morning"; just saying gece is enough.
Since the subject is baykuşlar (owls, plural), shouldn't the verb be uçabilirler?
In Turkish grammar, when a plural subject is not human (like animals, plants, or objects), the verb typically stays in the singular form. Adding the plural suffix -lar or -ler to the verb here would sound unnatural to a native speaker.
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