Questions & Answers about Bütün çocuklar bahçede oynuyor.
The subject is plural, so why doesn't the verb have the 'they' suffix (-lar) and say oynuyorlar?
In Turkish, if a human plural subject like çocuklar is explicitly stated in the sentence, the verb does not need the plural suffix -lar. You can simply use the third-person singular form oynuyor. Saying oynuyorlar is also grammatically correct, but dropping the -lar on the verb is very common and natural.
The dictionary form of 'to play' is oynamak. Why is the verb oynuyor instead of oynayor?
The present continuous tense suffix starts with a vowel. Because the verb stem oyna ends in a vowel (a), that final vowel is dropped, leaving just oyn-. Then, following 4-way vowel harmony rules for the letter o, we add -uyor, resulting in oynuyor.
Does the word bütün always require a plural noun like çocuklar?
It depends on what you mean! When bütün means 'all' (referring to a group of separate things), it takes a plural noun like bütün çocuklar (all the children). But when it means 'the whole', it takes a singular noun, such as bütün gün (the whole day).
As a quick refresher, why is the suffix -de used in bahçede?
This is the locative suffix, which means 'in', 'on', or 'at'. It follows 2-way vowel harmony. Since the last vowel in bahçe (garden) is an e, the suffix takes the -de form to give us bahçede (in the garden).
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