Breakdown of Markete gitmişken biraz mum ve kurdele de al.
gitmek
to go
ve
and
market
the market
almak
to buy
Questions & Answers about Markete gitmişken biraz mum ve kurdele de al.
Why is it markete and not just market?
Because -e/-a is the Turkish dative ending, which often marks direction: to or toward something.
- market = the market / store
- markete gitmek = to go to the store
So Markete gitmişken... starts with While you’re at the store / Since you’re going to the store...
Also, Turkish market usually means a store, grocery store, or supermarket, not necessarily an open-air market.
What does gitmişken mean here?
In this sentence, gitmişken means something like:
- since you’re going
- while you’re there
- while you’re at it
- now that you’re going
It comes from:
- gitmek = to go
- gitmiş = gone / apparently went / has gone
- -ken = while / when
But as a whole, -mişken often works as an idiomatic pattern meaning since that action is already happening or being treated as a given, do this too.
So Markete gitmişken is not best understood word by word as while having gone to the market. In natural English, it is more like since you’re going to the store anyway or while you’re at the store.
Why is there a past-looking form -miş in a sentence that can refer to the present or future?