Tiyatroya giderken eski bir dostuma rastladım.

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Breakdown of Tiyatroya giderken eski bir dostuma rastladım.

• gitmek: to go
• benim: my
• eski: old

Questions & Answers about Tiyatroya giderken eski bir dostuma rastladım.

Why is it tiyatroya and not just tiyatro?

Tiyatroya is tiyatro (theatre) + the dative case suffix -(y)a / -(y)e, which often corresponds to English “to”.

• tiyatro – theatre
• tiyatro + a → tiyatroya (a buffer y is added because the word ends in a vowel)

We use the dative case after verbs of movement like gitmek (to go) to show direction:

• okula gitmek – to go to school
• eve gitmek – to go home / to home
• tiyatroya gitmek – to go to the theatre

So tiyatroya giderken means “while going to the theatre”, not just “while going theatre”.

What exactly does giderken mean, and why not just gittim?