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Film o kadar etkileyiciydi ki gözlerim doldu.

Film o kadar etkileyiciydi ki gözlerim doldu.
The film was so moving that my eyes filled with tears.

Breakdown of Film o kadar etkileyiciydi ki gözlerim doldu.

olmak
to be
benim
my
film
the film
ki
that
doldurmak
to fill
göz
the eye
o kadar
so
etkileyici
moving
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Questions & Answers about Film o kadar etkileyiciydi ki gözlerim doldu.

What does o kadar … ki express in this sentence?
The correlative pair o kadar … ki means “so … that.” It indicates degree and result: here, “the film was so moving that my eyes filled with tears.”
How is etkileyiciydi constructed?

Breakdown:

  • etkileyici = “affecting, moving” (adjective from the verb etkile- “to affect”)
  • -ydi = past-tense copula (“was”) attached to adjectives/nouns
    Together etkileyiciydi = “it was moving.”
Why isn’t there a separate word for “was”?
In Turkish, the copula “to be” is often a suffix, not a standalone verb. In the past tense, -di/-dı/-du/-dü (+ person ending) attaches directly to the adjective or noun: here etkileyici + ydi = “was moving.”
What is the literal breakdown of gözlerim doldu?
  • göz = “eye”
  • -ler = plural marker → gözler = “eyes”
  • -im = 1st-person-singular possessive → gözlerim = “my eyes”
  • doldu = dolmak (“to fill, to become full”) + past tense -du
    • zero person ending (3rd singular) → “filled.”
      Together: “my eyes filled.”
How do you form the past tense of dolmak?
  1. Write the stem dol-.
  2. Add past-tense suffix -du, with vowel harmony → doldu.
  3. Add person ending: none for 3rd person singular, -m for “I,” -n for “you,” etc.
Why is the verb doldu in 3rd person singular, even though gözlerim is plural and the possessor is “my”?
Possessed nouns in Turkish are grammatically treated as 3rd person. The verb agrees with the possessed item (gözlerim), not with the possessor. Hence you use the 3rd-person singular form doldu, regardless of “my eyes” being plural.
Why doesn’t gözlerim take an accusative or other case ending?
Dolmak is intransitive here (no direct object). The subject of an intransitive verb stays in the nominative case (no suffix). So gözlerim remains bare nominative.
Can you replace o kadar with another intensifier?

Yes. For example:

  • Çok etkileyiciydi = “It was very moving.” (strong, but no cause-effect “that…” clause)
  • Son derece etkileyiciydi ki gözlerim doldu. (“It was extremely moving, so that my eyes filled.”)
  • Böylesine etkileyiciydi ki… (a more literary alternative to o kadar… ki)