Beyazlı oğlan topa vuruyor.

i have 2 questions concerning the above sentence:

1. is "lı" a suffix which means something like "with the color of sth."? i can't look it up in the suffix dictionary

2. why is the suffix "-a" added to the noun "top"? does it mean "kick to the ball" or sth? because i figure if it is "oğlan topu vuruyor" it makes perfect sense too, in fact i think it makes better sense, since the ball is the direct object of the verb "kick"...

can anyone answer my questions? thx a lot!!!!

thank you so much

'Beyazlı oğlan topa vuruyor'
Should be:
The boy in white (dresses) kicks the ball

' The boy kicks the white- colored ball"
This can be translated to Turkish as:
Oğlan beyaz renkli topa vuruyor.

Greetings,
That sentence must be build for educational pusposes as we would not hear this type of sentence very often.

Anyway here is the long answer to your second question:

Transitive Verbs:
These are the verbs that take an object. For instance "to sleep" is intransitive since it doesn't take an object. You can not sleep something. On the other hand "to cut" is transitive since it takes objects. You can cut something.

In Turkish, the object of a transitive verb will take a case suffix. In most cases this case suffix will be "accusative case" which is known as "-i case" (i hali).

Here is the full list for accusative case:
-ı, -i, -u, -ü

When you say "I love Turkia", 'to love' is transitive and takes the object 'Türkiye'. Therefore it will be "Türkiye'yi seviyorum". There is a buffer letter "y" in Türkiye'yi. Smillarly we say "Seni seviyorum" where sen takes the -i case.

Accusative is also called direct object case. It applies directly to the object. Accusative:
love the ... > -i sevmek
cut the ... > -i kesmek
want the ... > -i istemek

Some verbs take different cases. For instance "to look". You are not "looking THE" but you are "looking to". Therefore it takes the dative case. Dative case expresses the direction of the action.

The full list of dative case: -e, -a

look to > -e bakmak
go to > -e gitmek
take a shoot to > -e vurmak

Here is a full list:

1. name of case > 2. meaning > 3. full list according vowel harmony > 4. example noun > 5. example sentence

1. nominative case > 2. pure form > 3. no suffix > 4. İstanbul > 5. İstanbul çok güzel (Istanbul is very beautiful).

1. Dative > 2. direction: to > 3. -e, -a > 4. İstanbul'a > 5. İstanbul'a gidiyorum (I'm going to Istanbul).

1. Accusative > 2. applies to the object itself > 3. -ı, i ,u ,ü > 4. İstanbul'u > 5. İstanbul'u seviyorum (I love Istanbul).

1. Locative > 2. location: in, at, on > 3. -de, da, te, ta > 4. İstanbul'da > 5. İstanbul'da yaşıyorum (I'm living in Istanbul).

1. Ablative > 2. from > 3. -den, dan, ten, tan> 4. İstanbul'dan > 5. İstanbul'dan geliyorum (I'm coming from Istanbul).

The short answer is this:
vurmak takes -e case (to, towards). It is always "-e vurmak". Smillarly, it is always "-i sevmek". These are predefined things.

Yes, the genitive is considered to be a different category than five noun cases.

Noun cases exist because of verbs that are used in these cases. When you are going you are going 'to' a place and when you are coming you are coming 'from' a place and living 'in' a place and staying 'at' or 'on' a place. So there is a relation between the verb and the noun. In English this relation is created with the prepositions "in, at, on, from, to". So we say "going to İstanbul", "coming from Ankara", "living in Ankara". In Turkish we have case suffixes.

If there is no conjugable verb then there is no case suffix.

On the other hand genitive is different. Unlike the case suffixes it doesn't create a relation between the verb and a noun but between two nouns.

A good strategy is to learn all case suffixes when you study the verbs. Case suffixes are there because there must be a verb that uses that case. In a sentence change the verb and the case suffix will change. Remove the verb and the case suffix will go. You can not study a case suffix without learning the verbs that use that case. For instance you are going 'to', looking 'to', smiling 'to' and you are coming 'from', falling 'from', escaping 'from' etc.

Genitive can be studied independent than verbs. It has to do with nouns. For instance "İstanbul'un havası", "Ali'nin evi" etc.