"Kitap okuyorum."
Translation:I am reading a book.
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I want to check if i understood accusative correctly. Kitap okuyorum. I am reading A book. Kitabı okuyorum. I am reading THE book? Is it like that? Thank you!
To gather from the friendly neighborhood "Tips & notes," it would be optional.
I asked the same sort of question for another exercise. If I understand correctly from one of the Turkish friends, and all other things considered equal, yes, the indefinite object "book[s]" could also be interpreted as plural.. As for the second question, s/he informed that they prefer to not use the "lar" suffix for indefinite objects, actually. In any case, I don't know if any of this holds true for the present progressive tense. Can we get a native or expert witness?
"I am reading book" sacma, Tarzancadir :) Ya "a"yini ya da "cogul s"ini eklemelsiniz. :)
I find "a book" much more natural than "I am reading one book", a suggested solution. Reported
Both are fine in English but not for this sentence :) You are right in thinking that "I am reading one book" is incorrect here (as you would have to include "bir")
https://www.duolingo.com/comment/7736911
This answers your question. Basically, general direct objects are always kept in the singular.
I said I am reading book And it said I am reading books Kitap okuyorum??
"book" is a countable noun in English and requires and article in English
There's a mistake here! I wrote I am reading the book which should be right. If it were "a" book it would be : Bir kitap okuyorum
You are incorrect :) "bir" is almost always optional.
Specific direct objects (I am reading the book) take the accusative case in Turkish. You sentence would have been "Kitabı okuyorum."
Kitap okuyorum.. sometimes I use the and considered correct .. sometimes I wrote a and considered correct as well.. how can I know uses ?
'Ben bir kitabi okuyorum' vs 'ben kitap okuyorum' for "I am readind a book".....anyone please?
"I am reading a book" is "ben bir kitap okuyorum" but we don't use "bir" in daily speaking, so it means ben kitap okuyorum. "Ben kitabı okuyorum" is " I am reading the book"
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You don't care it's one book or more when you say "Ben kitap okuyorum". It's English's fault, which requires you choose either a book or books. I guess "I'm doing reading" conveys its meaning, but not sure if it's a good English sentece.
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I got this as a type what I am speaking exercise. I listened several times for the -Iyor ending and then typed Kitap okurum." Obviously, I was wrong, man is this hard to hear any difference.
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I thought that in the subject position a noun can be either The or A noun, so why isn't I am reading THE book accepted here?
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Thanks but I thought the subject noun is book. The verb is 'to read' with suffix for I, cont tense. Isn't that the sentence structure here? I wish mods were still active on this forum
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If I recall sentence diagramming correctly:
Verb - reading.
Subject - who or what is doing the reading? - "I" is doing the reading.
Direct object - Who or what is being read? - "book" is being read.
The rest of the words like "a" are adjectives describing "book."
In Turkish, when the verb has a suffix that tells you who the subject is, you don't actually have to put the subject word in the sentence, but it is still the subject. Here "okuyorum" means "I am reading"; the -(I)m shows us that it is "I" doing the action. So the sentence omits it and leads with the direct object.
Direct objects default to an assumed indefinite article (a/an) because if it was definite (accusative) it would have been "kitabı." Since there is no accusative ending, it must be A book.
Literally, this sentence is [a book] [I am reading], but in English it becomes "I am reading a book."
Does that help?
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Right, yes, I see. The subject is in the verb via the suffix. I even wrote that in my post without realising. :)
It's this reverse word order in Turkish that's confusing me half the time. Thanks again
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A Chinese guy who speaks Turkish just like natives once taght me, "You have to translate Turkish from its end of a sentence". So "Kitap okuyorum" is “我，正在，读，书”, and this is a perfect Chinese sentence. It's similar with English "I, doing, read, books". Btw, as a Japanese myself, I don't have to do this, lol
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In English, you generally don't have singular nouns floating around without either a definite article (the) or an indefinite article (a/an). In this case, the subject is "I", the verb is "am reading", and the object is "book." The question is whether it is any old (a) book or a specific (the) book. In Turkish, if the object was "the book," you would need to put it in the accusative case (kıtabı). Since it is not in the accusative, it is not "the book" you are reading and must, therefore, be "a book."
You can, I believe, also translate kıtap as "books" as in "I am reading books," but that wasn't your question. I have a post up above that breaks down the sentence a bit more.
The correct translation of this should be: "Bir kitap okuyorum." A book = Bir kitap
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In many previous examples/sentences whenever there was a noun as a direct object and without ''bir'' it was ALWAYS translated with plural apart from a few exercises at the very beginning of the course. Now, all of sudden it is translated with singular. As in my native language we do not have articles I don't have a problem understanding the sentence but it is annoying not knowing what DL will consider correct translation in English.