Dün parkta eski bir arkadaşımla karşılaştım.

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Breakdown of Dün parkta eski bir arkadaşımla karşılaştım.

• benim: my
• arkadaş: the friend
• park: the park

Questions & Answers about Dün parkta eski bir arkadaşımla karşılaştım.

Why is the verb karşılaştım at the end of the sentence?

Because the most neutral Turkish sentence order usually puts the verb last.

In this sentence:

• Dün = time
• parkta = place
• eski bir arkadaşımla = the person involved
• karşılaştım = verb

So this order is very natural in Turkish. English is much less flexible here, but Turkish can move parts around for emphasis. Even then, the verb often stays at the end.

What does parkta mean, and why is it -ta instead of -da?

Parkta is park + -ta, and it means in the park or at the park.

The ending is the locative suffix, which appears as -da / -de / -ta / -te depending on vowel harmony and consonant voicing.

Here:

• park ends in k, a voiceless consonant
• so -da becomes -ta
• the last vowel is a, so the vowel in the suffix is also a back vowel

That gives parkta.

Why is it arkadaşımla instead of separate words like arkadaşım ile?