"They have the tea."

Translation: Çay onlarda.

[Zententia]

Why is it not 'çayı'?

[AlexinNotTurkey]

There is no reason to put it in the accusative. It is the "subject" in the Turkish subject, so it should be in the nominative.

[joy_anne]

can you explain this in a clearer way? i also thought çayı would be correct.

[Eclectic1234]

Tea is the subject. The sentence doesn't translate literally as "they have." It's more like "The tea is at them." Is that right?

[MsHolanda]

GEEZ! The only problem is that the translation Duolingo app offers lead us to the mistake.. for it says "they have the tea".. (which means, it would be subject though) .. :o
®

[ClinBakan]

In that case, how do you make the difference between 'they have tea' and 'they have THE tea'?

[AlexinNotTurkey]

"Onlarda çay" -- They have the tea

"Onların çayı var" -- They have tea.

[AndreaBrownRiley]

I'm having trouble keeping straight the conjugations for using var and using locative. Is there a chart somewhere that breaks down what the possessor should change to when using var, and what the location should change to when using locative?

If that makes sense.

I feel like I can't keep straight all the ways a pronoun/noun is conjugated for these tenses. :(

[elenashastina]

Gosh, i ll never remember this!(((

[Salih_Dz.]

Am I right
Onlarda çay - the tea is at them(in their possession)= they have the tea.

Onların çayi var - their tea exists = the tea is their = they have tea

[ClinBakan]

thank you!

[Sompaliton]

onların çayı neden olmuyor?

[AlexinNotTurkey]

That would be "Their tea" :)

[Sompaliton]

onların çayı var olur mu?

[AlexinNotTurkey]

That would translate to "They have tea" :)

[Sompaliton]

Teşekkür ederim de neden Türkçe konuşmuyorsunuz?

[HerifinTeki]

Diğer insanlar da anlasın diye :)

[Zententia]

This is probably -also- very obvious, but... why can it not be "onlarda çay"?

[ex_contributor]

"onlarda" is the predicate (there is no verb in the sentence) - and thus should be at the end

[-travelJunky-]

'onların çayı var' is not correct?

[AlexinNotTurkey]

Nope, that would mean "They have tea" :)

[ldv1970]

"Onlarda çay var". Would it be correct?

[MarcinM85]

Is it possible to use locative with people's names, not just personal pronouns, in order to express "to have"?

[MustafaRadwan]

Why can't we say it as Onların çayı var? What is the difference between this sentence and this: Çay onlarda???

[AlexinNotTurkey]

This would mean "They have tea." You use the var-construction with general objects and the locative one with specific.

[Bill104907]

They have tea - not they have the tea - It sound like you are emphasizing the as in Cayi, which of course is not true.

[kanika.deniz]

Why it is onlarda...not onlar?

[Eclectic1234]

"Onlar" is just "they" or "them." Adding the suffix "da" indicates possession. "They have the tea," or, more literally, "The tea is at them."