Bir kadın seni arıyor.

you

Breakdown of Bir kadın seni arıyor.

• aramak: to call
• kadın: the woman
• bir: some

Questions & Answers about Bir kadın seni arıyor.

Why does the sentence start with bir? Does it mean one or a?

In this sentence, bir means a / an.

So bir kadın = a woman.

Turkish bir can also mean one, depending on context, but here it is acting like an indefinite article. Turkish does not have separate words for a and an like English does, so bir often fills that role when you want to say a certain, unspecified ....

• bir kadın = a woman
• kadın by itself can also mean woman / the woman, depending on context

So adding bir makes it clearly a woman, not a specific known woman.

Why is it seni and not sen?

Because seni is the accusative/object form of sen.

• sen = you as the subject
• seni = you as the direct object

In Bir kadın seni arıyor, you are the person being looked for / called, so Turkish uses the object form:

• sen = you
• seni = you (object)

Compare:

• Sen arıyorsun. = You are calling / looking for someone.
• Bir kadın seni arıyor. = A woman is calling / looking for you.

English usually keeps you the same in both roles, but Turkish changes the form.

What exactly does arıyor mean?