Learn Hardcore Turkish: Dün gece mutfakta yemek yaptım. - Last night, I cooked food in the kitchen.

“Dün” means yesterday and “gece” means night. When combined as “Dün gece,” they form the common expression “last night.” In Turkish, it’s typical to specify time details at the beginning of the sentence.

How is the location expressed in the sentence?

The word “mutfak” means kitchen and the suffix “-ta” (which can also appear as “-te” depending on vowel harmony) is added to form “mutfakta.” This locative suffix indicates “in the kitchen.”

Why does “yemek yaptım” translate as “I cooked” instead of “I did food”?

Although “yemek” literally means food or meal, the phrase “yemek yapmak” is an idiomatic expression in Turkish that means “to cook.” Thus, “yemek yaptım” is naturally understood as “I cooked.”

Why is the subject “I” not explicitly mentioned in the sentence?

Turkish is a pro-drop language, which means that subject pronouns are commonly omitted when the verb conjugation makes the subject clear. Here, the ending “-dım” in “yaptım” indicates the first-person singular, so the subject “I” is understood without being stated.

What is the word order of this sentence and does it follow a typical Turkish structure?

Yes, the sentence follows a common Turkish structure. It starts with the time expression (“Dün gece”), then the location (“mutfakta”), followed by the object (“yemek”), and finally the verb (“yaptım”). This order—time, place, object, verb—is typical in Turkish sentences.

Why isn’t the object “yemek” marked with an accusative case ending?

In Turkish, when an object is used within a fixed expression or is considered indefinite, it often appears without an accusative case marker. Since “yemek yapmak” is an established idiom meaning “to cook,” the object “yemek” stays unmarked.