Sabahları yürüyerek vapur iskelesine gidiyorum.

(In the mornings, I go to the ferry dock by walking.)

Breakdown of Sabahları yürüyerek vapur iskelesine gidiyorum.

• gitmek: to go
• yürümek: to walk
• -ye: to
• vapur iskelesi: the ferry dock

Questions & Answers about Sabahları yürüyerek vapur iskelesine gidiyorum.

What does sabahları mean? Why the plural suffix -ları?

Sabahları = sabah (morning) + -lar (plural). When you add -lar to a time word, it doesn’t mean “many mornings” in the literal sense but rather “repeated mornings,” i.e. “in the mornings.” This is how Turkish marks habitual or recurring time expressions (e.g. akşamları “in the evenings,” geceleri “at nights”).

What is yürüyerek? How is it formed and what does it mean?

Yürüyerek is a zarf-fiil (adverbial participle, “gerund”) formed from the verb yürü- (to walk) + -erek. It means “by walking” or “on foot,” indicating the manner or means of the action.
Formation steps:
• Stem: yürü-
• Add linking vowel + -erek → yürüy-erek → yürüyerek

Why is vapur iskelesine in the dative case with -e?

When you indicate motion toward a place in Turkish, you use the dative case -(y)E. Here vapur iskelesi (ferry pier) takes -ne to become vapur iskelesine, meaning “to the ferry pier.” It’s not a direct object, so you don’t use the accusative (-i).

How is gidiyorum formed, and what tense/aspect does it express?

Gidiyorum = git- (to go) + -iyor (present continuous) + -um (1st person singular). Due to sound changes: git-iyor-um → gidiyor-um.
It expresses the present continuous (“I am going”), but in Turkish this form can also convey habitual actions, depending on context.

Why don’t we say ben in “Sabahları yürüyerek vapur iskelesine gidiyorum”?

Turkish normally omits the subject pronoun when the verb ending already indicates person. Here -um in gidiyorum tells you it’s “I,” so saying ben would be redundant unless you want to add emphasis (“I, personally, go…”).

Can I change the word order? For example, say “Vapur iskelesine sabahları yürüyerek gidiyorum” or “Yürüyerek sabahları vapur iskelesine gidiyorum”?

Yes. Thanks to case endings, Turkish allows a fairly flexible word order. The neutral order is time → manner → place → verb, but you can rearrange elements for emphasis. All your examples are grammatically correct; they just spotlight different parts of the sentence.

Why do we use gidiyorum (present continuous) instead of giderim (simple present) for a habitual action?

In everyday Turkish, the -iyor (present continuous) form often doubles for both ongoing and repeated/habitual actions. The simple present -ir form is grammatically fine but sounds more formal or literary. So “Sabahları … gidiyorum” is the natural, conversational way to say “I (regularly) go in the mornings.”