Question 1

Why is zehrolduğunu written as one word, and what happened to the second "i" in zehir?

Accepted Answer

When certain two-syllable nouns like zehir (poison) combine with auxiliary verbs like olmak or etmek, they lose the vowel in their second syllable (vowel elision). According to Turkish orthographic rules, if a sound change like this vowel drop occurs, the noun and the auxiliary verb must be written together as one word: zehrolmak.

Question 2

Why does tatil take the genitive suffix -in in tatilinin?

Accepted Answer

Let's break it down: tatil-i-n-in (holiday - his - buffer - genitive). The word takes the genitive case because it is the subject of an embedded clause. In Turkish, when you create a "that" clause using a -dık participle (like zehrolduğunu), the subject of that action must be in the genitive case.

Question 3

Can you break down the suffixes at the end of zehrolduğunu?

Accepted Answer

Sure! After the verb stem zehrol-, we add the object participle -duk (which softens to -duğ-) and the 3rd person possessive -u to mean "the fact that it became poison." Finally, we add the buffer -n- and the accusative suffix -u. The accusative is required because the entire embedded clause is the direct object of the main verb biliyordu (everyone knew what?).

Question 4

Why do we use ona (to him) instead of onun için (for him) in this sentence?

Accepted Answer

The compound verb zehrolmak (to be ruined / to become poison) specifically requires a dative object to express who is affected by the action. You literally say that something "became poison to someone," which is why o (he) takes the dative suffix -a to become ona.

Tatilinin ona zehrolduğunu herkes biliyordu.

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