Ben sabah erken kalkmaya alışkınım.

Ben sabah erken kalkmaya alışkınım.
I am accustomed to getting up early in the morning.
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Turkish grammar and vocabulary.

Start learning Turkish now

Questions & Answers about Ben sabah erken kalkmaya alışkınım.

What does alışkınım mean and how is it formed?

alışkınım translates as “I am accustomed to” or “I’m used to.” It’s built from:

  • alış (root from the verb alışmak, “to get used to”)
  • -kın (adjectival suffix, forming alışkın, “accustomed”)
  • -ım (first-person singular possessive/copylar suffix, “my is,” functioning here as “I am”)

So literally it’s “my being accustomed,” i.e. “I am accustomed.”

Why do we see kalkmaya instead of the bare infinitive kalkmak?

After alışkın (“accustomed”), Turkish requires a noun in the dative case to show “to doing something.” The steps are:
1) kalk = verb root “get up”
2) -ma = verbal-noun (deverbal) suffix, yields kalkma “the act of getting up”
3) -ya = dative case marker, yields kalkmaya “to the act of getting up”

Hence kalkmaya = “to getting up,” equivalent to English “to get up” in “used to get up.”

Why is Ben used if the verb ending already indicates “I”?

Turkish conjugations do mark the subject (here -ım in alışkınım marks “I”). Still, speakers often include pronouns like Ben for:
• Emphasis (“I, personally…”)
• Contrast (“I do, but others don’t…”)
• Clarity in longer or more complex sentences

You can drop Ben and still be correct: Sabah erken kalkmaya alışkınım.

Where is the verb “to be” (olmak) in this sentence?
In Turkish, the copula “to be” is often implied by personal-ending suffixes rather than a separate word. Here, the -ım on alışkın serves both as “my” and “I am.” So there’s no separate olmak; alışkınım already means “I am accustomed.”
Why is the word order sabah erken instead of erken sabah?

• sabah can function as an adverb meaning “in the morning”
• erken is an adverb meaning “early”

In Turkish, you’ll often see the broader time expression first, then the manner: sabah erken (“in the morning, early”). Erken sabah is also possible but shifts nuance to “early morning” as a single time chunk (e.g. erken sabah yatak başında bekledim – “I waited by the bed in the early morning”).

What is the difference between using alışmak and alışkın olmak?

• alışmak + (–A) is a verb meaning “to become accustomed to,” e.g. Kahve içmeye alıştım. (“I got used to drinking coffee.”)
• alışkın olmak turns it into an adjective phrase: “to be accustomed.” In practice you often drop olmak and use the adjective + suffix, as in alışkınım.

Using alışmak focuses on the process of getting used to something; alışkın emphasizes the resulting state (“I’m accustomed”).