Questions & Answers about Gözyaşı sessizce akıyor.
Gözyaşı is a compound noun:
- göz = eye
- yaş = liquid, moisture, tear
- göz + yaş + ı → gözyaşı = literally eye’s liquid, i.e. tear.
The -ı at the end is historically the 3rd person possessive suffix (its liquid), but in modern Turkish gözyaşı is understood as a single word meaning tear rather than a live possessive phrase.
Turkish often uses a singular noun for things that in English are typically plural or mass:
- Gözyaşı sessizce akıyor.
Literally: The tear is flowing silently.
Natural English: Tears are flowing silently.
Here, gözyaşı is more like an uncountable or generic “tear” as a substance. The fact that there is more than one drop is usually understood from context.
If you want to make the plurality explicit, you can say:
- Gözyaşları sessizce akıyor.
= The tears are flowing silently.
Sessizce is an adverb meaning silently / quietly.
Formation:
- sessiz = silent, quiet (adjective)
- -ce / -ca = adverb-forming suffix
- sessiz + ce → sessizce = silently, in a silent way.
So:
- sessiz answers “What kind of thing?” (adjective)
- sessizce answers “How?” (adverb)
In this sentence, sessizce modifies the verb akıyor (flows):
How are the tears flowing? → Silently.
Akıyor comes from the verb akmak (to flow, to run, e.g. water).
Breakdown:
- stem: ak- (flow)
- progressive / present continuous suffix: -ıyor (one of -ıyor / -iyor / -uyor / -üyor, chosen by vowel harmony)
- person ending: for 3rd person singular, there is no extra ending; the bare -yor form is already 3rd person singular.
So:
- ak- + ıyor → akıyor = is flowing / flows
Tense/aspect: present continuous in Turkish, usually translated as is flowing, but depending on context it can also correspond to English flows.
In English we need is:
- The tear is silently flowing.
In Turkish, the -yor suffix on the verb already expresses “is … ing”, so you do not add a separate to be:
- akmak = to flow
- akıyor = is flowing
So:
- Gözyaşı sessizce akıyor.
Literally: Tear silently is-flowing.
There is no standalone word equivalent to is because the -yor suffix does that job.
Turkish is a pro-drop language: subject pronouns are usually left out when they are clear from context or from the verb ending.
- The subject is gözyaşı (tear / tears).
- The verb akıyor is 3rd person singular, which matches gözyaşı.
You could grammatically say:
- Gözyaşı, o sessizce akıyor.
but that sounds unnatural or redundant here.
The subject is clearly gözyaşı, so no o (it) or onlar (they) is needed.
Turkish has no articles like a/an or the. The definiteness (the vs a) is usually understood from context, word order, and sometimes from case endings.
- Gözyaşı sessizce akıyor.
can be translated as:- Tears are flowing silently.
- The tears are flowing silently.
- A tear is silently flowing.
Which one you choose in English depends on the broader context or what sounds natural. In many narrative contexts, Tears are flowing silently is the most idiomatic translation.
Yes, Turkish word order is flexible, though Gözyaşı sessizce akıyor is the most neutral and natural here.
Some possibilities:
Gözyaşı sessizce akıyor.
– Neutral focus; simply states what is happening.Sessizce gözyaşı akıyor.
– Slight emphasis on sessizce (the manner):
Silently, tears are flowing.Gözyaşı akıyor sessizce.
– Extra emphasis on sessizce at the end; stylistic, poetic.Akıyor gözyaşı sessizce.
– More poetic/inverted; emphasizes the action akıyor (is flowing).
Basic meaning remains the same, but the focus or emotional tone changes slightly.
You might hear sessiz akıyor, and it is not completely wrong, but:
- sessizce akıyor is more standard and natural, because sessizce is the proper adverb form meaning silently.
Using an adjective (sessiz) directly before a verb is less typical. Turkish normally uses:
- adjective + -ce / -ca to form adverbs of manner:
- yavaş → yavaşça (slow → slowly)
- dikkatli → dikkatlice (careful → carefully)
- sessiz → sessizce (silent → silently)
So in careful, textbook Turkish, Gözyaşı sessizce akıyor is the better choice.
Both are related to crying, but they focus on different things:
gözyaşı akıyor = tears are flowing
Focus on the tears themselves (the physical fact that tears are running).ağlıyor = he/she is crying
Focus on the person’s action / emotional state.
So:
Gözyaşı sessizce akıyor.
– Emphasizes the silent flow of tears.Sessizce ağlıyor.
– Emphasizes that he/she is crying silently (the person, not just the tears).
We don’t say göz yaş as two separate bare nouns. Instead, modern Turkish treats gözyaşı as a compound word.
Historically, this comes from a possessive structure:
- gözün yaşı = the eye’s liquid (eye-GEN liquid-POSS)
Over time, it fused into the compound gözyaşı (eye-liquid), with the second part carrying the possessive ending -ı.
So:
- It is not göz yaş
- It is göz + yaş + ı → gözyaşı (fixed compound meaning tear).
The choice among -ıyor / -iyor / -uyor / -üyor follows vowel harmony:
- If the stem has a back, unrounded vowel (a, ı): use -ıyor
- If the stem has a front, unrounded vowel (e, i): use -iyor
- If the stem has a back, rounded vowel (o, u): use -uyor
- If the stem has a front, rounded vowel (ö, ü): use -üyor
The verb stem is ak-:
- vowel: a (back, unrounded) → takes -ıyor
So:
- ak- + ıyor → akıyor
(not akiyor, akuyor, aküyor)
In the -yor tense, the personal endings work like this:
- geliyorum = I am coming
- geliyorsun = you are coming
- geliyor = he/she/it is coming
- geliyoruz = we are coming
- geliyorsunuz = you (pl/formal) are coming
- geliyorlar = they are coming
For 3rd person singular, there is no extra suffix beyond -yor itself.
So:
- ak- + ıyor → akıyor = he/she/it is flowing (or is flowing with an explicit noun subject like gözyaşı).
That’s why you don’t see an extra person marker after -yor here.