Breakdown of Misafirler içeri girer girmez annem çay ikram ediyor.
çay
the tea
benim
my
misafir
the guest
içeri
inside
Questions & Answers about Misafirler içeri girer girmez annem çay ikram ediyor.
Why does Turkish use girer girmez here? What exactly is that structure?
Girer girmez is a very common Turkish pattern meaning as soon as ... or the moment ....
It is built like this:
- girer = (he/she/it) enters in the aorist form
- girmez = does not enter in the negative aorist form
But together, girer girmez is an idiomatic time expression. It does not mean enters, doesn’t enter literally. As a set pattern, it means:
- as soon as [someone] enters
- the moment [someone] comes in
You will see the same pattern with many verbs:
- gelir gelmez = as soon as he/she comes
- duyar duymaz = as soon as he/she hears
- oturur oturmaz = as soon as he/she sits down
So Misafirler içeri girer girmez... means As soon as the guests come in...
Why is it girer, not girerler, even though misafirler is plural?
Because girer girmez is a fixed adverbial pattern, and it normally uses the 3rd person singular aorist form of the verb, regardless of whether the subject is singular or plural.
So Turkish says:
- Misafirler gelir gelmez...
- Çocuklar içeri girer girmez...
not usually:
- Misafirler gelirler gelmez...
In other words, the pattern itself stays fixed, and the plural subject is understood from misafirler.
What is içeri doing here? Why not or ?