Breakdown of Annem her cumartesi pazardan kiraz alır.
almak
to take, to buy
anne
mother
her
every
pazar
bazaar / open-air market
cumartesi
Saturday
kiraz
cherry
Questions & Answers about Annem her cumartesi pazardan kiraz alır.
Why is the verb alır instead of alıyor?
Alır is in the aorist tense (the simple present), which is used for regular habits and general truths. Since the sentence says her cumartesi (every Saturday), it describes a routine, making the aorist tense a perfect fit. You could also use the present continuous alıyor for a habit in modern conversational Turkish, but alır is the classic choice for established routines.
Why does the English translation say 'cherries' but the Turkish word is just kiraz instead of kirazlar?
In Turkish, when you talk about a general category of things rather than a specific group of items, you usually leave the noun in the singular form. Because her mother is buying an uncounted, general amount of cherries, Turkish just uses the singular kiraz.
Why doesn't kiraz have an accusative case ending (like kirazı)?
The accusative case (adding a vowel like -ı to the end) is only used for specific direct objects, which usually translates to 'the' in English. Because she is buying general cherries, not specific ones we were just talking about, kiraz acts as a general direct object and stays in its plain, unmarked form right next to the verb.
I thought pazar meant 'Sunday'. Does it mean 'market' here?
Yes! The word pazar means both 'Sunday' and 'open-air market'. You can easily tell from the context of buying food and the 'from' ending -dan that pazardan means 'from the market' here.
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