Breakdown of Bu cümleyi tam olarak anlamıyorum.
bu
this
cümle
the sentence
anlamak
to understand
-yi
accusative
Questions & Answers about Bu cümleyi tam olarak anlamıyorum.
What does tam olarak mean in this sentence, and how is it different from tam or tamamen?
tam olarak is an adverbial phrase meaning “exactly” or “precisely.”
- tam alone can mean “complete” or “full,” but as an adverb it’s less precise (colloquial “fully/quite”).
- tamamen means “completely/entirely” (more like “not at all” when used with a negation).
So tam olarak anlamıyorum means “I don’t understand it exactly,” whereas tam anlamıyorum is more like “I don’t quite understand,” and tamamen anlamıyorum would be “I don’t understand it at all.”
Why is there a -yi at the end of cümle (making cümleyi)?
Turkish marks a definite direct object with the accusative suffix -yI (which becomes -ı, -i, -u, or -ü by vowel harmony).
- cümle ends in e (a front unrounded vowel), so you attach -y
- i → cümleyi.
This signals “the/this sentence” as a specific object you don’t understand.
- i → cümleyi.
There’s no word for “I” in the sentence. How do we know who the subject is?
Turkish is a pro-drop language: personal pronouns are often omitted because the verb ending carries that information.
- In anlamıyorum, the suffix -um marks 1st person singular.
- Adding ben (“I”) is possible (Ben bu cümleyi tam olarak anlamıyorum), but usually unnecessary unless you want extra emphasis.