Ayaklarım ağrıyor, parkta yürüyememek beni üzüyor.

My feet hurt; not being able to walk in the park makes me sad.

Breakdown of Ayaklarım ağrıyor, parkta yürüyememek beni üzüyor.

• benim: my
• park: the park
• beni: me
• ağrımak: to hurt
• ayak: the foot
• yürüyememek: to be unable to walk
• üzmek: to make sad

Questions & Answers about Ayaklarım ağrıyor, parkta yürüyememek beni üzüyor.

What does ayaklarım literally mean and how is it formed?

ayaklarım breaks down as:

• ayak “foot” (root)
• -lar plural suffix → “feet”
• -ım 1st-person-singular possessive suffix → “my”
  So ayaklarım = “my feet.”

Why is it ağrıyor and not ağrıyorum, since I’m the one feeling the pain?

In Turkish, when a body part “hurts,” the body part is the grammatical subject in 3rd person, and the person feeling the pain appears in the possessive suffix.

• ayaklarım (my feet) is 3rd-person plural subject → verb takes 3rd-person singular/present-continuous -ıyor (no personal ending) → ağrıyor.
  If you wanted to literally say “I am hurting (somewhere),” you’d use a different construction (e.g. canım ağrıyor “my body hurts”).

What case is parkta, and why does the suffix look like -ta?

parkta is the locative case meaning “in the park.”
It comes from the locative suffix -(y)DA, adjusted by two harmony rules:

1. Vowel harmony: root vowel is /a/ → choose a
2. Consonant harmony: root ends in a voiceless consonant (k) → choose voiceless t
   Hence park
   • -ta = parkta “in the park.”

How is yürüyememek formed, and what does it literally mean?

yürüyememek = “not being able to walk.” Breakdown:

1. Root of yürümek “to walk” → yürü (drop -mek)
2. Ability suffix -yebil → yürü + yebil “to be able to walk”
3. Negative suffix -me → yürüyebil + me “not able to walk”
4. Infinitive/noun-forming -mek → yürüyememek
   So it literally is “the inability to walk.”

What is beni doing in beni üzüyor, and what case is it?

beni is the 1st-person-singular accusative pronoun (ben → beni) functioning as the direct object of the verb üzüyor (“saddens”).
So beni üzüyor = “(it) saddens me.”

What’s the grammatical subject of üzüyor, and why is that verb in the 3rd person?

The entire gerund clause parkta yürüyememek (“not being able to walk in the park”) acts as the subject of üzüyor.
Since subjects formed by verbal nouns are treated as 3rd person singular, üzüyor takes the 3rd-person-singular/present-continuous form.
Literal translation: “Not being able to walk in the park makes me sad.”