Breakdown of Şu leyleğin gagası çok uzun olabilir.
şu
that (pointed out)
çok
very
uzun
long / tall
olmak
to be
leylek
stork
gaga
beak
Questions & Answers about Şu leyleğin gagası çok uzun olabilir.
How does olabilir translate to 'might be' in this sentence?
It uses the formula for possibility you are learning in this lesson. It starts with the verb ol (to be). Then we add the possibility suffix -abil and the aorist tense ending -ir. Together, olabilir expresses epistemic possibility, meaning a state might or could be true.
Why is the word for stork spelled leyleğin instead of leylekin?
This is an example of consonant mutation, also known as softening. The base word for stork is leylek. When we add the genitive suffix -in to say 'the stork's', the hard k changes to a soft ğ because it is immediately followed by a vowel.
What is the purpose of the -sı at the end of gagası?
It is the third-person possessive suffix. Because we are saying 'the stork's beak' (leyleğin gagası), the word gaga (beak) needs a suffix to show it belongs to the stork. Since gaga ends in a vowel, we use the buffer letter s followed by the vowel ı.
Why doesn't şu (that) get a genitive suffix here to match the stork?
In Turkish, demonstrative words like şu do not take case suffixes when they simply point to a noun. Here, şu modifies leyleğin, so only the noun gets the suffix. You would only use şunun if it were a standalone pronoun meaning 'that one's'.
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