Learn Hardcore Turkish: Arkadaşım istasyonda bekliyor, çünkü tren gecikti ve istasyon çok kalabalık. - My friend is waiting at the station because the train is delayed, and the station is very crowded.

İstasyonda comes from the noun istasyon (meaning station) combined with the locative suffix -da, which indicates location. This suffix tells us that the action happens at the station. In Turkish, such suffixes replace prepositions like “at,” so istasyonda literally means “at station.”

What role does çünkü play in the sentence?

Çünkü means “because” in Turkish. It introduces a subordinate clause that explains the reason behind the main clause. Here, it connects the statement “Arkadaşım istasyonda bekliyor” (My friend is waiting at the station) with the explanation “tren gecikti ve istasyon çok kalabalık” (because the train was delayed and the station is very crowded).

How is the sentence structured in terms of clauses and punctuation?

The sentence is divided into two parts: a main clause and a subordinate clause. The main clause is “Arkadaşım istasyonda bekliyor” (My friend is waiting at the station), and the subordinate clause, introduced by çünkü, is “tren gecikti ve istasyon çok kalabalık” (because the train was delayed and the station is very crowded). A comma is used before çünkü to clearly separate these two parts, similar to how we separate main and explanatory clauses in English.

What does gecikti mean, and what is its verb form?

Gecikti is the past tense form of the verb gecikmek, which means “to be delayed.” In this sentence, “tren gecikti” translates to “the train was delayed.” The ending -di (here appearing as -ti due to vowel harmony) marks the past tense in Turkish.

Why is the noun istasyon used twice in the sentence, once as istasyonda and later as istasyon without a suffix?

The first occurrence, istasyonda, uses the locative suffix -da to indicate location—it tells us where the action of waiting is taking place. In contrast, the second occurrence of istasyon appears without a suffix because it functions as the subject of the clause “istasyon çok kalabalık” (the station is very crowded), simply describing a property of the station. This distinction shows how suffixes are applied in Turkish to mark different grammatical roles.

What function does the conjunction ve serve in this sentence?

Ve means “and” in Turkish. It is used to link two pieces of information within the subordinate clause: “tren gecikti” (the train was delayed) and “istasyon çok kalabalık” (the station is very crowded). This conjunction helps combine both reasons that explain why the friend is waiting.

How does the Turkish word order in this sentence compare to English word order?

Turkish usually follows a Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) order, whereas English follows a Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) order. In the main clause, “Arkadaşım istasyonda bekliyor”, the subject arkadaşım comes first, followed by the locative phrase istasyonda, with the verb bekliyor at the end. This placement of the verb—as well as the use of suffixes to express grammatical relationships—can be quite different from English, where word order tends to rely more on separate function words like prepositions.