Questions & Answers about Bir dolar kaç lira?
Why don't we use var here to ask "how many liras are there in a dollar"?
You actually can! Bir dolarda kaç lira var? (How many liras are there in a dollar?) is a perfectly correct way to ask this. Bir dolar kaç lira? is just a shorter, very common alternative that literally means "A dollar is how many liras?"
Why is lira singular? Shouldn't it be plural (liralar) since we're asking "how many"?
In Turkish, nouns that come after a number or a quantity question word like kaç (how many) always stay in their singular form. Because of this rule, it is always kaç lira and never kaç liralar.
Where is the verb "is" in Bir dolar kaç lira?
Turkish doesn't have a separate, standalone word for "is" or "are". When stating a basic fact about an "it" (like a dollar), the "is" is simply understood from the context without needing any extra words or suffixes.
Why is the question word kaç in the middle of the sentence?
In Turkish, question words usually sit in the exact same spot where the answer will go. Since the answer is something like Bir dolar otuz lira (A dollar is thirty lira), the question word kaç just replaces the number.
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