Breakdown of Akıntının başladığı yerde genişçe bir mercan var.
bir
a / an
var
there is / existent
yer
place / space / room (unoccupied space, capacity)
başlamak
to begin, to start
geniş
wide / spacious
akıntı
current
mercan
coral
Questions & Answers about Akıntının başladığı yerde genişçe bir mercan var.
What does the -çe suffix do to the word geniş in this sentence?
The suffix -ce / -ca (which becomes -çe / -ça after hard consonants) acts as a softening suffix for adjectives. While geniş means 'wide', adding -çe makes it genişçe, meaning 'quite wide', 'rather wide', or 'widish'. It makes the adjective a bit more approximate or relative.
Why does akıntı (current) take the genitive suffix -nın to become akıntının?
It takes the genitive case because it is the subject of a specific type of relative clause. In Turkish, when you describe a noun using an action that has its own specific subject (the current is doing the starting), that subject takes the genitive case. This pairs with a possessive suffix on the verb, literally translating to 'the current's starting'.
How does başladığı work here, and why does it end in -ı?
This is the verb başlamak (to start) turned into an adjective using the participle suffix -dık. The -ı at the end is the 3rd person possessive suffix, which pairs with akıntının ('the current's starting'). The k from -dık softens to ğ because it is followed by a vowel. Together with yerde (at the place), başladığı yerde means 'at the place where it starts'.
Why is bir placed after genişçe instead of before it?
In Turkish word order, when an adjective modifies an indefinite noun (using 'a' or 'an'), the word bir almost always goes exactly between the adjective and the noun. So you say genişçe bir mercan (literally 'quite-wide a coral') rather than putting bir at the very beginning.
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