Kupa sallanınca çay masaya sıçradı.

the tea

Breakdown of Kupa sallanınca çay masaya sıçradı.

• masa: the table
• kupa: the mug
• -ya: to

Questions & Answers about Kupa sallanınca çay masaya sıçradı.

How is sallanınca formed morphologically?

sallanınca comes from the intransitive verb root sallan- (“to shake”) plus the temporal-conjunction suffix -ınca, which means “when/once.” So: sallan- + -ınca → sallanınca (“when it shakes”).

What exactly does the suffix -ınca express here?

The suffix -ınca turns a verb into a “when/after” clause. It indicates that once the action of the verb is completed, the main clause follows. In English you’d say, “When the cup shook, the tea…”

Why is sallanmak used instead of sallamak?

sallanmak is the intransitive form (“to shake itself” or “to wobble”), so the cup is doing the action on its own. sallamak is transitive (“to shake something”). Since the cup isn’t shaking anything else but moving itself, we use sallanmak.

Why is the subject (“the cup”) not explicitly stated with a pronoun?

In Turkish, subjects (especially pronouns) are often dropped if they can be inferred. Here, sallanınca already implies “when it shakes,” so you don’t need o (“it/that”) before sallanınca.

What is the function of masaya? Why -ya and not -da?