Breakdown of Pardon, sizi yanlış anladım.
anlamak
to understand
yanlış
incorrectly
siz
you
pardon
excuse me; sorry
Questions & Answers about Pardon, sizi yanlış anladım.
What does pardon mean here?
Pardon is a common way to say sorry?, excuse me, or pardon me in Turkish.
In this sentence, it softens what follows, so it works like:
- Sorry,
- Excuse me,
- Pardon me,
It is very common in spoken Turkish.
Why does the sentence use sizi instead of seni?
Sizi is the form for:
- you plural, or
- you singular formal/polite
Seni is singular informal.
So:
- seni yanlış anladım = I misunderstood you (informal, one person)
- sizi yanlış anladım = I misunderstood you (formal one person, or more than one person)
This sentence sounds polite because of sizi.
Why is it sizi and not just siz?
Because anlamak takes a direct object, and direct objects are often marked in Turkish.
Here, siz becomes sizi, which is the accusative form.
- siz = you
- sizi = you (as the object)
So sizi yanlış anladım literally means I understood you wrongly.
What does yanlış mean in this sentence?