Breakdown of Büyük cevizler bitti ama küçükler var.
büyük
big
küçük
small
var
there is / existent
bitmek
to finish / to end
ama
but
ceviz
walnut
Questions & Answers about Büyük cevizler bitti ama küçükler var.
Why does the adjective küçük have a plural suffix here?
In Turkish, when you drop the noun that an adjective describes, the adjective takes over the noun's job. This is called substantivization. Here, instead of repeating küçük cevizler (small walnuts), we just attach the plural suffix -ler directly to the adjective, giving us küçükler (the small ones).
Why isn't büyük also pluralized as büyükler?
Because büyük is still acting as a regular adjective attached to a noun (cevizler). In Turkish, adjectives never take a plural suffix when the noun they describe is right next to them. An adjective only gets noun suffixes when the noun itself is left out, like with küçükler in the second half of the sentence.
Since the subject is plural (büyük cevizler), why doesn't the verb have a plural suffix (bittiler)?
This is a key rule for subject-verb agreement in Turkish: if the subject is plural but not human (like objects, plants, or concepts), the verb must remain in the singular form. Since walnuts are inanimate objects, we use the singular bitti.
Why does bitti translate to 'are gone' instead of 'finished'?
The verb bitmek literally means 'to finish' or 'to end.' However, when talking about supplies, food, or items for sale, it is the standard way to say that something has 'run out' or 'is all gone'.
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