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Kol saatim durdu, o yüzden telefondan saate bakıyorum.

Kol saatim durdu, o yüzden telefondan saate bakıyorum.
My wristwatch stopped, so I check the time on my phone.
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Questions & Answers about Kol saatim durdu, o yüzden telefondan saate bakıyorum.

What exactly does "kol saatim" mean? Why not just "saatim" or "kol saati"?
  • kol saati = wristwatch (literally "arm/wrist clock"). It's a fixed compound.
  • kol saatim = my wristwatch. You add the 1st‑person possessive to the head: saat + -im → saatim.
  • saatim alone can also mean "my watch" (usually understood as the wristwatch from context), but it can ambiguously mean "my time/hour" in some contexts.
  • Don’t say kol saati’m; the head takes the new possessive and the old -i disappears: kol saati → kol saatim.
Why is it "saatim" and not "saatım"? Doesn’t vowel harmony require -ım after "a"?
  • The 1sg possessive is -Im and usually follows vowel harmony.
  • Saat is an exception that is overwhelmingly used as saatim in practice. Treat it as lexicalized; "saatım" sounds wrong to most speakers.
  • You’ll hear sentences like Saatim durdu, Saatim bozuk, etc.
What does "durdu" express here, and how is it different from "bozuldu" or "pili bitti"?
  • durdu = "stopped (running)" — intransitive dur-
    • simple past -du; focus on the movement stopping.
  • bozuldu = "broke/failed" — broader malfunction.
  • pili bitti = "the battery died" — explicit cause. All are natural; pick based on what you want to emphasize.
Why "o yüzden"? Could I use "bu yüzden", "onun için", or "çünkü"?
  • o yüzden / bu yüzden both mean "so/therefore/that’s why." Tiny nuance: o often refers to an already-given reason; bu to an immediate/current one. In everyday speech they’re interchangeable.
  • Formal: bu nedenle, bu sebeple, dolayısıyla. Colloquial: ondan (dolayı).
  • çünkü = "because" and introduces the reason clause: Telefonumdan saate bakıyorum, çünkü kol saatim durdu.
Why is it "telefondan" with -dan? English says "on my phone," not "from my phone."
  • -dan/-den (ablative) often marks a source/medium: getting info "from" somewhere.
  • With verbs like bakmak/öğrenmek, you’ll see sources in the ablative: telefondan, internetten, haberden.
  • Other choices:
    • telefonda (locative) = "on the phone" (place; can also mean "on a call").
    • telefona (dative) = "to the phone" — odd here.
    • telefonla (instrumental) = "with/by phone" — tool, not source.
Should it be "telefonumdan" (from my phone) instead of the bare "telefondan"?

Both are fine:

  • telefondan = from a/the phone; context usually implies your own.
  • telefonumdan = explicitly "from my phone" and is very common.
Why "saate bakıyorum" and not "saati bakıyorum"?
  • bakmak selects the dative: you "look at" something → X‑e bakmak.
  • So: saate bakmak, kitaba bakmak, ekrana bakmak.
  • saati would be accusative (or 3sg possessive) and is ungrammatical with bakmak.
What does "saate" mean here—"clock" or "time"?
  • saat is polysemous. In saate bakmak, it means "check the time."
  • To mean a specific clock, you specify it: duvardaki saate bakıyorum ("I’m looking at the wall clock").
  • To mean your watch, say saatime bakıyorum / kol saatime bakıyorum.
Is "saate" spelled correctly? Why not "saat'e" with an apostrophe?
  • Case suffixes attach directly: saat + -e → saate. Apostrophes are for proper names, not common nouns.
  • The double vowel sequence is normal; you just add -e to saat and get saate.
Why use the present continuous "bakıyorum"? Would "bakarım" work?
  • bakıyorum (-yor) = now/ongoing or a current, temporary habit ("these days I check on my phone because my watch stopped").
  • bakarım (aorist) = general habit or rule ("I usually check the time on my phone"). Both are possible; here bakıyorum is more idiomatic.
Can I change the word order? For example, "Saate telefondan bakıyorum."

Yes. Case markers free up word order.

  • Neutral: Telefondan saate bakıyorum.
  • Emphasizing the source: Saate telefondan bakıyorum. The verb typically stays at the end.
Is the comma before "o yüzden" necessary?
Optional but common. …, o yüzden … mirrors English "…, so …" and improves readability. You can omit it in short sentences.
Is "kol saati" the only way to say "wristwatch"?
  • The standard is kol saati.
  • bilek saati exists but is much rarer.
  • Often saat alone already means "watch" from context.
Where is "I" in the Turkish sentence?
It’s encoded in the verb ending -um of bakıyorum ("I am looking"). You can add ben for emphasis: Ben telefondan saate bakıyorum.
Could I say "O yüzden telefonu açıp saate bakıyorum"?

Yes. That explicitly adds a preliminary action:

  • telefonu açıp = "opening/unlocking the phone," using the converb -ip to chain actions.
  • Keep saate (dative) after bakmak.