Breakdown of Öğle yemeğinde salatayı tercih ettim.
öğle yemeği
the lunch
-de
in
salata
the salad
tercih etmek
to choose
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Turkish grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about Öğle yemeğinde salatayı tercih ettim.
What does the phrase öğle yemeğinde mean, and what role does the locative suffix play?
It means "at lunch." The locative suffix -de (attached to yemeğinde) indicates the time or location when the action occurred, pointing to the meal period.
Why is salata written as salatayı in the sentence?
In Turkish, definite direct objects take the accusative case. The suffix -yı is added to salata to mark it as a specific, definite object—that is, "the salad."
What does tercih ettim mean, and how is it structured?
Tercih ettim translates as "I chose" or "I preferred." It comes from the verb phrase tercih etmek (to prefer or choose), with ettim being the simple past form of etmek for the first person singular.
Why is there no explicit subject like ben (I) in the sentence?
Turkish is a pro-drop language, meaning that subject pronouns are often omitted because the verb conjugation (in this case, -tim in ettim) clearly indicates who is performing the action.
How does the word order in this Turkish sentence compare to that in English?
Turkish typically places temporal or locative elements first (öğle yemeğinde), followed by the object (salatayı), and puts the verb at the end (tercih ettim). This contrasts with English, which generally follows a Subject-Verb-Object order, but Turkish’s case system allows for more flexible word order.