"His history books were very old."

Translation: Onun tarih kitapları çok eskiydiler.

[amrbekhit]

I thought that the -ler/-lar suffix would only be used with "living" objects, and not inanimate ones!

[AlexinNotTurkey]

You are right there, but informal Turkish is a little more lax. In the future tree, I think we will change all of these sentences :)

[sjoerd527781]

After six years this issue isn't fixed yet

[Sayel.Abbadi]

Tamam.

[Nic.182]

Why isn't it "onun tarih kitaplarısı"?
I thought that you also add the suffix -(s)ı when you combine two nouns. Plus someone owns it, which would require -(s)ı as well :D

[Blablache]

It's a noun compound so it already has the possessive ending (it's a book of history). You can't have two possessive endings on the same word, it can only be "possessed" once, grammatically.

[JuergenZirak]

So the possessor would be obligatory to mention and cannot be implied in or deduced from the suffix of the possessed, if you want to state that what you are talking about is belonging to someone specific?

[rirenmargo]

Could anyone confirm this? Thanks

[Todd940413]

I bet there's a nice moderator out there who can tell these nice people why "kitapları" doesn't get an extra suffix on account of the "Onun" (that is, confirm Blablache's message) : )

[rirenmargo]

If history book is "tarih kitapları", why isn't his history book "onun tarih kitaplarısı"?

[Winnie777541]

why eskiydiler and not eskiydi, kitaplari already shows plural??

[GhassanKha]

For posessing a compound name you should first omit the original posesive suffix I/sI then add the new possessor suffix. So..

His history books = onun tarih kitapları.
My history books = tarih kitaplarım.
Your history books = tarih kitapla-rın/ınız.
Our history books = tarih kitaplarımız.

[Lingueta]

If tarih kitapları is compound word, why there is no suffix for posesive for onun - Onun tarih kitaplarısı or kitaplarını? ( I forgot do we use n or s as a buffer for possesive).

[Shahrazad26]

Why is 'the books' deemed the object of the sentence? Where / which is the verb?

[AlexinNotTurkey]

There is no verb :) There is the past tense marker on "eski-ydi" but there is no verb "to be" in Turkish.

There is nothing else in this sentence that can be the subject besides "his history books"

[Shahrazad26]

That is what I thought, so why the accusative case?

[AlexinNotTurkey]

There is no accusative case here.

"tarih kitapları" is a noun compound which uses the 3rd person possessive suffix :)

[Shahrazad26]

Oh, got it.

[maryam534517]

Tarih kitapları is a compound noun , so with onun it should be kitapları(n)ı , right ?

[ienashhuwaida]

Can we say "cok yasliydi" ??

[MetroWestJP]

No, because "yaşlı" is only used for living things, like people and animals. For non-living things, like books, you have to use "eski."

[Soraya554340]

Thanks.

[paulavandun]

Why not eskidi where does the y come from?

[Todd940413]

You can read about it under "Past Tense Copula" at https://www.duolingo.com/skill/tr/Past-Tense/tips-and-notes.