Kum saati geri sayımı gösteriyor.

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Breakdown of Kum saati geri sayımı gösteriyor.

• kum saati: an hourglass
• geri sayım: a countdown

Questions & Answers about Kum saati geri sayımı gösteriyor.

Why does saati end in -i? Is it an accusative ending?

Not here. In kum saati, the -i is part of a very common Turkish noun-compound pattern.

• kum = sand
• saat = clock / hourpiece
• kum saati = hourglass

This type of compound often puts a 3rd-person possessive-looking ending on the second noun. So kum saati is the normal dictionary form for hourglass.

So in this sentence, kum saati is the subject, not an object. The -i in saati is part of the compound itself, not a separate case ending.

What kind of structure is kum saati exactly?

It is an indefinite noun compound in Turkish.

The pattern is usually:

• first noun: bare form
• second noun: takes a compound ending

So:

• elma suyu = apple juice
• yatak odası = bedroom
• kum saati = hourglass

English often uses noun + noun compounds too, but Turkish forms them differently. A learner may expect something like kum saat, but that is not how Turkish normally says hourglass.

What does geri sayım literally mean?

Literally, it means something like backward counting or counting back.

• geri = back / backward
• sayım = counting / count

Together, geri sayım means countdown.

So even though the full meaning is already known to you, it helps to see that Turkish builds this idea quite transparently from smaller parts.