Breakdown of Sınav sonrasında kitap okumak sakinleştirici.
olmak
to be
okumak
to read
sakinleştirici
calming
sınav
exam
sonrasında
after
kitap
book
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Questions & Answers about Sınav sonrasında kitap okumak sakinleştirici.
Why do we say Sınav sonrasında instead of Sınavdan sonra? Are they interchangeable?
Both mean after the exam, but their forms differ:
- Sınavdan sonra uses the ablative case suffix -dan on sınav plus sonra and is very common in speech.
- Sınav sonrasında breaks down as sonra
- 3rd person possessive -sı
- locative -nda, literally “in its after,” and often appears in writing or formal contexts.
There’s no change in meaning, so you can pick either based on style. You’ll also see synonyms like Sınavın ardından or Sınav sonunda.
- locative -nda, literally “in its after,” and often appears in writing or formal contexts.
- 3rd person possessive -sı
Why is kitap okumak in the infinitive form? How can it act as the subject?
In Turkish, the infinitive (verb + -mak/-mek) can function as a noun phrase—just like an English gerund. Here kitap okumak literally means reading a book and serves as the grammatical subject of the sentence. That’s why we don’t use a personal verb form such as okuyor here.
Why isn’t there a bir before kitap? Would bir kitap okumak work too?
When you use kitap okumak to describe the activity in general, you omit the indefinite article bir. If you said bir kitap okumak, you’d imply “to read one specific book,” shifting the focus. For general habits or feelings, Turkish speakers simply say kitap okumak.
What part of speech is sakinleştirici, and why don’t we see a verb like olmak or a copula?
Sakinleştirici is an adjective formed from the verb sakinleştirmek (to calm) by adding the suffix -ici/-ıcı, equivalent to English -ing or -ive adjectives (e.g. “calming”). In Turkish, adjectives can stand alone as predicates without a separate copula. So Kitap okumak sakinleştirici directly means reading a book is calming. You could add the formal ending -dir (sakinleştiricidir), but it’s optional and would just sound more definite or bookish.
Could we use rahatlatıcı instead of sakinleştirici?
Yes. Rahatlatıcı comes from rahatlamak (to relax) plus the same -tıcı suffix, meaning relaxing. You can say Sınavdan sonra kitap okumak rahatlatıcı or Sınav sonrasında kitap okumak rahatlatıcı and convey essentially the same idea.
Why is the word order Sınav sonrasında / kitap okumak / sakinleştirici? Could it be rearranged?
Turkish generally follows:
- Adverbial phrases (time/place)
- Subject
- Object (if any)
- Verb or predicate
Here, Sınav sonrasında is a time phrase, kitap okumak is the subject, and sakinleştirici is the predicate adjective. You could omit or move elements for emphasis, but Sınav sonrasında kitap okumak sakinleştirici is the most natural. Other orders tend to sound awkward or shift the focus.
Why doesn’t Sınav have a case ending in Sınav sonrasında? Where is the genitive?
The possession is shown by the suffix -sı on sonra, so Sınav itself remains unmarked. This is a common Turkish pattern: a bare noun (Sınav) precedes a possessed noun (sonra with -sı). You could explicitly mark the genitive and say Sınavın sonrasında, but it’s not required when the head noun carries the possessive suffix.