Breakdown of Lütfen kapıda bekleyiniz; doktor gelene kadar biz kayıt yapıp sırayı düzenleyeceğiz.
gelmek
to come
biz
we
beklemek
to wait
kapı
the door
Questions & Answers about Lütfen kapıda bekleyiniz; doktor gelene kadar biz kayıt yapıp sırayı düzenleyeceğiz.
Why is the very formal form bekleyiniz used instead of bekleyin or bekle?
Turkish has different imperative forms that map to levels of politeness and number:
- bekle: 2nd person singular, informal (to one person you know well).
- bekleyin: 2nd person plural or polite (to more than one person, or politely to one person).
- bekleyiniz: extra-formal/polite; common on signs, announcements, or in institutional contexts like hospitals.
Breakdown: bekle-y-iniz (root bekle- + buffer y + -iniz). In everyday speech, bekleyin is more common; bekleyiniz sounds very formal or “announcement-like.”
What does kapıda mean, and why the suffix -da?
Kapıda = “at/by the door.” The suffix -DA is the locative case (“in/on/at”) and obeys vowel and consonant harmony:
- Back vowels (a, ı, o, u) → -da
- Front vowels (e, i, ö, ü) → -de Also, D can surface as t after voiceless consonants (e.g., saatte).
Here, kapı ends in a vowel and has a back vowel ı, so we get kapı-da. If you wanted “in front of the door,” you could say kapının önünde.
How is doktor gelene kadar built, and what does it literally mean?