Göğsümde hafif bir ağrı olunca biraz oturup dinlendim.

When I felt a slight pain in my chest, I sat down and rested a little.

Breakdown of Göğsümde hafif bir ağrı olunca biraz oturup dinlendim.

• olmak: to be
• bir: a
• benim: my
• dinlenmek: to rest

Questions & Answers about Göğsümde hafif bir ağrı olunca biraz oturup dinlendim.

How is Göğsümde built, and why doesn’t it look like göğüsümde?

Göğsümde breaks down like this:

• göğüs = chest
• -üm = my
• -de = in / on / at

So the full meaning is in my chest or on my chest, depending on context.

The reason it becomes göğsümde instead of göğüsümde is that some Turkish nouns drop a vowel when a suffix is added. This happens in a number of body-part words.

For example:

• göğüs → göğsüm = my chest
• ağız → ağzım = my mouth
• burun → burnum = my nose

So göğsümde is the normal correct form.

Why is -de used in göğsümde?

The suffix -de / -da is the locative suffix, which usually means in, on, at.

Here:

• göğsümde = in my chest

In this sentence, it tells you where the pain is located.

A few similar examples:

• kolumda ağrı var = there is pain in my arm
• başımda baskı var = there is pressure in my head
• sırtımda ağrı var = there is pain in my back

So göğsümde gives the physical location of the symptom.

Why does the sentence say hafif bir ağrı instead of just hafif ağrı?