Learn Hardcore Turkish: Bu kadar çok konuşuyorsun ki bazen seni takip etmek zor oluyor. - You talk so much that sometimes it’s hard to follow you.

Bu kadar points to a specific degree (“this much, to this extent”), while çok just says “a lot” in a more general way. In this sentence, they are combined to strongly emphasize the amount: “bu kadar çok” = so very much.

Why does the sentence use both “bu kadar” and “çok”? Isn’t that redundant?

In everyday Turkish, combining them is normal and adds emphasis:

bu kadar çok konuşuyorsun ≈ “you talk so much / so very much”

Here’s the nuance:

çok konuşuyorsun – you talk a lot (plain statement)
bu kadar konuşuyorsun – you talk this much (pointing to the degree, but sounds a bit bare here)
bu kadar çok konuşuyorsun – you talk such an extreme amount (stronger, more emotional/complaining)

So it’s not considered clumsy; it’s a natural way to intensify the idea of “a lot.”

What is the function of “ki” in “Bu kadar çok konuşuyorsun ki…”?

Here ki is a conjunction that creates a “so … that …” structure, introducing the result of the first clause.

Pattern (very common in Turkish):

(o/öyle/bu kadar) + adjective/adverb/verb + ki + result
O kadar çok konuşuyorsun ki bazen seni takip etmek zor oluyor.
= You talk so much that sometimes it’s hard to follow you.

So in this sentence:

First part: Bu kadar çok konuşuyorsun – You talk this much / so much
ki – so that
Result: bazen seni takip etmek zor oluyor – sometimes it’s hard to follow you

You cannot just drop ki here; without it, the sentence would lose that “so … that …” meaning and sound incomplete or changed in meaning.

Is this “ki” the same as the “-ki” suffix I see in words like “dünkü”?

No, there are two different ki’s:

Separate word “ki” (as in this sentence)
- A conjunction: “so that, that”
- Used in structures such as: öyle … ki, o kadar … ki, bu kadar … ki
Attached suffix -ki
- Written together with the preceding word: dünkü, evdeki, şimdiki
- Has meanings like “the one which is / the one at / the one from”:
  - dünkü – the one from yesterday
  - evdeki – the one at home

In your sentence, ki is the separate conjunction, so it stands alone and introduces the result clause.

What tense/aspect is “konuşuyorsun”, and why isn’t it “konuşursun”?

Konuşuyorsun is the present continuous form of konuşmak (to talk):

konuş-uyor-sun = you are talking / you talk (currently, or generally)

In Turkish, the -yor tense is often used not only for “right now”, but also for general or habitual actions, especially with words like bazen (sometimes), hep (always), etc.

Konuşursun is the aorist (general/habitual) form:

Genelde çok konuşursun. – You generally talk a lot.

Here, konuşuyorsun gives a feeling of ongoing / characteristic behavior that the speaker is reacting to, so it sounds more personal and immediate, like: “You (always) talk so much.”

Why is there no “sen” in the sentence? How do we know it means “you talk so much”?

In Turkish, personal pronouns are usually dropped because the verb ending already shows the subject.

konuşuyor – (he/she/it) is talking
konuşuyorsun – you are talking
konuşuyorum – I am talking

The ending -sun in konuşuyorsun tells us the subject is sen (you).
So Sen bu kadar çok konuşuyorsun ki… would also be correct, but adding sen is only needed for emphasis or contrast:

Sen bu kadar çok konuşuyorsun ki…
– You (as opposed to others) talk this much that…

What does “takip etmek” literally mean, and why is it two words?

Takip etmek literally means “to do follow”, and together it functions as the verb “to follow”.

takip – a noun from Arabic, meaning “following, pursuit, tracking”
etmek – a light verb meaning “to do / to perform”

Turkish often builds verbs by combining a noun with etmek, yapmak, olmak, etc.:

yardım etmek – to help (literally “do help”)
namaz kılmak – to perform the prayer
takip etmek – to follow

So takip etmek is treated as one verb semantically, even though it is written as two words.

Why is it “seni” and not “sen” in “bazen seni takip etmek zor oluyor”?

Seni is the accusative (direct object) form of sen:

sen – you (subject form)
seni – you (as a direct object)

Takip etmek is a transitive verb: you follow someone/something.
That “someone” must take the -i (accusative) ending:

Seni takip ediyorum. – I’m following you.
Onu takip etmek zor. – It’s hard to follow him/her/it.

So in your sentence:

seni takip etmek – to follow you
This whole infinitive phrase acts as the subject of zor oluyor.

Grammatically, what is the subject of “zor oluyor” in the second clause?

The subject is the infinitive phrase:

seni takip etmek – “following you / to follow you”

So structurally:

(Seni takip etmek) – subject
zor – predicate adjective (hard/difficult)
oluyor – copular verb (is / becomes)

Literal structure: “Following you is hard (is becoming hard).”
Turkish can make an entire “-mek” clause the subject of a sentence, without any extra word for “it”:

Erken kalkmak zor. – Getting up early is hard.
Seni takip etmek zor oluyor. – Following you is (becomes) hard.

What does “zor oluyor” mean literally, and could we just say “zor”?

Literally, zor oluyor = “is becoming hard” or “(it) is hard (in practice / as it happens).”

zor – hard, difficult
oluyor – is happening / is becoming / turns out (from olmak, to be / to become)

Nuance:

Seni takip etmek zor. – Following you is hard. (general statement)
Seni takip etmek zor oluyor. – Following you ends up being hard / turns out hard (in situations that actually arise).

The -yor form (oluyor) makes it feel more dynamic and experiential, fitting well with bazen (“sometimes”): Sometimes, following you ends up being hard.

Can “bazen” be placed somewhere else in the sentence? Does that change the meaning?

Yes, bazen is flexible in word order. All of these are possible:

Bazen seni takip etmek zor oluyor.
Seni bazen takip etmek zor oluyor.
Seni takip etmek bazen zor oluyor.

The basic meaning is the same: sometimes it’s hard to follow you.

Subtle differences:

Bazen seni takip etmek zor oluyor. – Neutral; “sometimes, following you is hard.”
Seni bazen takip etmek zor oluyor. – Slight extra focus on you before saying “sometimes…,” but still natural.
Seni takip etmek bazen zor oluyor. – Slight focus on the difficulty (“following you is sometimes hard”).

In everyday speech, the first or third versions are most common.

Could we say “Bu kadar çok konuştuğun için bazen seni takip etmek zor oluyor” instead? How would that differ from using “ki”?

Yes, that sentence is correct, but the meaning and tone shift slightly.

Bu kadar çok konuşuyorsun ki bazen…
– You talk so much that sometimes… (emphasizes degree → resulting difficulty; more dramatic/complaining)
Bu kadar çok konuştuğun için bazen…
– Because you talk this much, sometimes… (more neutral causal explanation)

Details:

…konuşuyorsun ki…
- Focus: extreme amount of talking
- ki marks a result (“so… that…”)
- Feels more emotional, often used to complain or exaggerate.
…konuştuğun için…
- için = because
- Focus: straightforward cause-and-effect
- Sounds more factual and a bit less dramatic.

Both are grammatical; which one you choose depends on how emotional or neutral you want to sound.

Is there usually a comma before “ki” in this kind of sentence?

In practice, you will see it both with and without a comma:

Bu kadar çok konuşuyorsun ki, bazen seni takip etmek zor oluyor.
Bu kadar çok konuşuyorsun ki bazen seni takip etmek zor oluyor.

Many writers put the comma because in speech there is a natural pause before ki, and because it starts a new clause (the result clause).

However, Turkish punctuation rules are not as rigid on this point as in English. Omitting the comma is also common and not considered a serious mistake.