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”?