Learn Hardcore Turkish: Köylü sabah erkenden tarlaya gidiyor. - The villager goes to the field early in the morning.

köylü literally comes from köy (“village”) + -lü (a suffix meaning “having or coming from”). In this sentence it functions as a noun meaning “villager” or “peasant.”

Why is there no word for “a” or “the” before köylü?

Turkish has no articles like “a” or “the.” Definiteness or indefiniteness is understood from context. Here köylü can mean “a villager” or “the villager” depending on what the speaker intends.

What tense and aspect is gidiyor, and how is it formed?

gidiyor is the present continuous tense (“is going”). It’s formed by taking the verb stem git- (“to go”), adding the progressive suffix -iyor (with vowel harmony: i > i because git- has front unrounded vowel), and then adding the personal ending –(y)or plus no extra ending for third person singular. A buffer consonant y appears because the stem ends in a vowel.

Why does the stem git- change to gid- in gidiyor?

After git-, Turkish avoids certain consonant clusters, so t often softens to d before the vowel i. This is a regular consonant alternation in many verbs.

What is tarlaya, and why is the suffix -ya used?

tarlaya is the dative case of tarla (“field”), meaning “to the field.”
• tarla + -y (buffer consonant) + -a (dative suffix, following vowel harmony because a is a back vowel).
The dative marks direction toward a place.

What is the role of sabah in the sentence? Is it a noun or an adverb?

sabah literally means “morning” (a noun), but when placed adverbially it means “in the morning” or “morning time.” In Turkish, many time words (sabah, akşam, öğle) can function like adverbs without extra suffixes.

Why do we say sabah erkenden instead of just erkenden or sabah erken?

• erkenden means “early” or “early on” (from erken + ablative -den, literally “from early”).
• sabah erkenden emphasizes “early in the morning.”
Putting sabah before it specifies when, and using erkenden makes it clear the villager starts “early” relative to the usual time.

Could you change the word order, for example to Sabah erkenden köylü tarlaya gidiyor?

Yes. Turkish has relatively flexible word order for emphasis. The default is Subject–Time–Place–Verb (S–T–P–V), but you can swap elements to highlight them. All these mean “The villager is going to the field early in the morning,” just with slight shifts in focus depending on what you put first.