Ben merdivenlerden yavaşça iniyorum.

I

Breakdown of Ben merdivenlerden yavaşça iniyorum.

• inmek: to go down
• yavaşça: slowly
• -den: from

Questions & Answers about Ben merdivenlerden yavaşça iniyorum.

Why does merdivenlerden end with -lerden? What does this case indicate, and why is merdiven treated as plural here?

• The suffix -den/-dan is the ablative case in Turkish, used to express “from” somewhere.
• You attach it to merdivenler (the plural of merdiven, which conventionally means “stairs” rather than a single step), giving merdiven-ler
  • -den = merdivenlerden, i.e. “from the stairs.”

How is the present continuous tense formed in in‐i‐yor‐um, and what does each part represent?

1) in- = verb stem meaning “to go down.”
2) -iyor = present continuous tense marker (you drop the infinitive -mek/-mak and add -iyor).
3) -um = 1st person singular subject ending (“I”).

Together in-iyor-um = “I am going down.”

Why is Ben included at the beginning? Is it necessary?

• Ben = “I.”
• It’s optional because Turkish verbs carry their subject in the ending (-um here).
• You could simply say Merdivenlerden yavaşça iniyorum. and it still means “I am going down the stairs slowly.”

What is yavaşça, and how does it relate to yavaş?