Kalkış saati yaklaşıyor.

Breakdown of Kalkış saati yaklaşıyor.

yaklaşmak
to approach
kalkış saati
the departure time
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Questions & Answers about Kalkış saati yaklaşıyor.

What part of speech is kalkış, and how is it formed?

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.

Why is there an -i on saat? Isn’t -i the accusative ending?

• 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.

Shouldn’t it be kalkışın saati instead of kalkış saati?

• 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.

What tense and aspect does yaklaşıyor represent?

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.

How exactly is yaklaşıyor conjugated from yaklaşmak?

Breakdown of yaklaşıyor:

  1. Root: yaklaş- (approach)
  2. Progressive suffix: -ıyor (vowel-harmonized from -iyor)
  3. Zero ending: no extra person ending = 3 sg implied
    Result: yaklaş
    • ıyor = yaklaşıyor (“it is approaching”).
Why isn’t there a pronoun before yaklaşıyor? Who is doing the 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.”

How do you turn this statement into a question or make it negative?

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?

Should kalkış saati be written as one word or two?

• 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.