Questions & Answers about Kitabın onuncu sayfasını okuyorum.
Why is it kitabın instead of kitapın?
When a Turkish word ends in a hard consonant like p, ç, t, or k, and we add a suffix starting with a vowel, that hard consonant usually softens. Here, adding the genitive suffix -ın (which acts like "of the" or an apostrophe-s) causes the p in kitap to change to a b.
Why does sayfa (page) have the -sı suffix in this sentence?
It is part of a possessive compound! To say "the book's page" (or "the page of the book"), Turkish requires a genitive suffix on the owner (kitabın) and a possessive suffix on the thing owned. Since sayfa ends in a vowel, it takes -sı instead of just -ı.
What do the -n- and the final -ı in sayfasını do?
The word breaks down as sayfa (page) + -sı (its) + -n- (buffer) + -ı (accusative case). We need the final -ı because "the tenth page" is a specific direct object of the verb okuyorum (I am reading). The -n- is a special buffer letter that is always used when adding any case marker to a word that already has a third-person possessive suffix.
How do you form ordinal numbers like onuncu (tenth)?
You add the suffix -ıncı, -inci, -uncu, or -üncü to a number, based on 4-way vowel harmony rules. Since the last vowel in on (ten) is "o", it takes the -uncu suffix.
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