Questions & Answers about Kalkış saati yaklaşıyor.
• kalkış is a noun meaning “departure.”
• It comes from the verb kalkmak (to get up; to depart) plus the nominalizing suffix -ış, which turns a verb into the noun denoting the action or event.
• Here -i is the 3rd-person singular possessive suffix, not an accusative marker. It shows “the time of departure.”
• In context you know saati is the head of a compound (noun 1 + possessive noun 2), so it’s a possessive form, not a direct-object case.
• In strict Genitive-Possessive constructions you’d say kalkışın saati (“the departure’s time”).
• However, Turkish often forms noun-noun compounds by dropping the genitive ending on the first noun, especially in fixed expressions. In announcements and timetables you typically see kalkış saati.
• yaklaşıyor is the present-continuous form of yaklaşmak (to approach).
• It literally means “(it) is approaching” and conveys that the departure time is getting close right now.
Breakdown of yaklaşıyor:
- Root: yaklaş- (approach)
- Progressive suffix: -ıyor (vowel-harmonized from -iyor)
- Zero ending: no extra person ending = 3 sg implied
Result: yaklaş- ıyor = yaklaşıyor (“it is approaching”).
• Turkish is a pro-drop language: subject pronouns (I, you, he/she/it) are often omitted.
• The verb ending already tells you it’s 3 sg. Here the subject is the noun phrase kalkış saati, so the verb implicitly refers to “the departure time.”
To ask “Is the departure time approaching?” add the question particle mi after the verb (with appropriate spacing and vowel harmony):
Kalkış saati yaklaşıyor mu?
To negate it, insert -ma before -ıyor:
Kalkış saati yaklaşmıyor.
Or combine both:
Kalkış saati yaklaşıkmıyor mu?
• It’s written as two separate words.
• Most Turkish noun-noun compounds are just spaced; you only see hyphens or single words in certain fixed or borrowed terms, but kalkış saati stays two words.