"Evimiz deniz kenarında."
Translation:Our house is by the sea.
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lucaturilli, you say a phrasal expression. 'Deniz kenarı' is a compound noun, isn't it?
There are easy explanations by Selcen in Duolingo Turkish Grammar Portal about compound nouns: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/8616301.
There's another phrase in this unit: "Okulun kenarında park var." Perhaps the reason 'kenarında' takes the genitive in this instance is because of the "var" construction? And it might just take the nominative otherwise? I really hope someone who actually knows what they're talking about will answer this question!!
'Kenar' means 'edge' in Turkish. And 'Okulun kenarında park var.' literally means 'There is a park at the edge of the school.' So it is not related to 'var' construction. The logic here is: There is a reference point(It is school here.) and we state a direction according to said reference point. So the construction becomes something like at the (direction) of (reference point).
So... We can translate "Okulun kenarında park var" as "There is a park next to the school", while "Okul kenarında park var" (without the genitive construction) can be translated as "There is a park by the school." Thus it's a question of precision/proximity, right? Or, as you say, using it as a specific "reference point." I think I get it now. Thanks for your help!
My pleasure. You're right about that '-in' suffix is about precision. But in fact 'okul kenarı' has a half genitive construction. In Turkish both possessor and possessum(possessed thing) or just the possessum is marked(depends on precision).
okul(school) kenar(edge)-(possessum genitive marker) indefinite noun compound(belirtisiz isim tamlaması)
okul-un(possessor genitive marker) kenar-ı(possessum genitive marker) definite noun compound
otel restoranı(hotel restaurant) indefinite noun compound
kemanın sesi(sound of the violin/violin's sound) definite noun compound
telefon kablosu(telephone cable) indefinite noun compound
telefonun kablosu(telephone's cable/cable of the telephone) definite noun compound
lucaturilli, don't you forget the suffix "ı" at the end of "kenar" in the first entence "okul kenar"? The same construction as in "otel restoranı"? Thanks to answer.
Very clear Just to be sure i got it We can say that the suffix of the second noun in genitive case is a possessive suffix fir third person so it can be i or si ???
in theory yes, but "deniz kenarı" is a phrase that's always used like that, "deniz yanı" is completely wrong, "denizin yanı" is OK but doesn't sound natural
I guess you cannot use "kenarında" to state that something is next to someone, since someone rarely has an edge (he may be ON edge, though)
I translated this as "Our house by the sea" and was marked incorrect. How would my English phrase look in Turkish?
Your phrase would be 'Deniz kenarında evimiz'. In Turkish determiners are always followed by the noun phrases they modify. And if we swap 'deniz kenarında' and 'evimiz', there will be an invisible 'to be'.
by the sea, next to the sea, at the edge of the sea, at the sea shore. I hope when I learn speaking no one will argue with me which expression I use. Ha Ha
Freak'n' Turkish genitive/possessive style compound nouns.
I: “Wait… what?! Which noun is possessing the genitive possessee?!”
Y'know, I never considered this style of noun-compounding to be difficult or confusing… until now… Gets me every time.
Also, I wish that simple noun-compounding was a part of the language-reform in the '20s. :/
Can we come back to 'Our house is at the seaside' which is given as wrong, while the correct version is given as 'My house is by the seaside'. Please explain why -da means 'by' and not 'at'.
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Can anyone tell me why it is ( deniz kenarında ) and why it is not ( denizin kenarında?) I am getting confused .. Have a nice day
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