"Her yellow car was very old."

Translation: Onun sarı arabası çok eskiydi.

[sepetdalv]

Maybe I missed it, but what's "sı" in "arabası" doing here? would it be wrong to say "Onun sarı arabası çok eskidi" ? I also do not understand why there's y in eskiydi.

[ex_contributor]

-sı in arabası is a possessive ending, please read tips and notes of that skill and consider reviewing it :)

-y in eski-y-di is a buffer letter, you always need it before a -di suffix if the word ends with a vowel

if you say eskidi, then you use "eski" as a verb (eskimek), so it means "her yellow car got old"

[mizinamo]

The buffer -y- is only needed in "isim cümleleri", right?

With a "fiil cümlesi" it's just "oynadı, yürüdü, bekledi", right, not "oynaydı, yürüydü, bekleydi"?

[sfbilly]

Is there any difference at all between eski and yaşlı?

[mizinamo]

yaşlı is for people (opposite of genç "young"), eski is for things (opposite of yeni "new") and is also used for "ex-, former".

[msHelenRuth]

Is it correct in thinking that when ever the stem of the verb ends in 'I' a 'y' is added before the past suffix? Or is this just in some cases, irregular case perhaps?

[mizinamo]

Is it correct in thinking that when ever the stem of the verb ends in 'I' a 'y' is added before the past suffix? Or is this just in some cases, irregular case perhaps?

Not when the predicate is a verb; only when the predicate is an adjective or a noun.

For example, boyamak "to paint, dye" has boyadım "I painted, I dyed" -- that's a real verb.

But for pahalı "expensive", for example, the past would be pahalıydı "it was expensive" -- an adjective.

And for anne "mother", you would have anneydi "she was a mother" -- a noun.

I believe this used to be two words, as in pahalı idi, anne idi, from a pseudo-verb imek.

[Gorkem11]

"sarı arabası" should be equal to "onun sarı arabası"