Breakdown of Müdürün yardımcısı şimdi ofiste.
şimdi
now
müdür
manager, director
ofis
office
yardımcı
assistant, helper
Questions & Answers about Müdürün yardımcısı şimdi ofiste.
How does the structure for 'the manager's assistant' work in this sentence?
This is a definite noun compound. The owner (müdür) gets the genitive suffix -ün, meaning 'manager's'. The owned thing (yardımcı) must take the 3rd person possessive suffix -sı to link it back to the owner. Literally, it works like 'the manager's his-assistant'.
Why does müdür take the -ün suffix?
The genitive suffix follows 4-way vowel harmony (-ın, -in, -un, or -ün). Because the last vowel in müdür is ü, the suffix must also be -ün.
Where does the s in yardımcısı come from?
The root word is yardımcı (assistant), which ends in a vowel. The 3rd person possessive suffix here is ı. In Turkish, we cannot put two vowels next to each other, so we use the buffer consonant s for possessive suffixes. This makes it -sı.
Why does ofis take -te instead of -de?
This is the locative suffix meaning 'in' or 'at'. It is normally -de, but because ofis ends in a voiceless consonant (s), the d changes to a hard t to match it. This is called consonant assimilation.
Where is the verb 'is' in this sentence?
In simple factual statements like this, Turkish often leaves out the 'to be' verb for the 3rd person (he/she/it is). You could add the suffix -dir to the end (ofistedir), but leaving it off is very common and completely correct in everyday speech.
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