Breakdown of Eskiden her yaz ninemin çiftliğinde kalıyordum.
kalmak
to stay / to be left / to remain (in a state)
her
every
yaz
summer
nine
granny
eskiden
in the old days, formerly
çiftlik
farm
Questions & Answers about Eskiden her yaz ninemin çiftliğinde kalıyordum.
Why does the verb kalıyordum have both an -ıyor and a -du ending?
In Turkish, to talk about habits in the past (things you 'used to' do), you use the past continuous tense. You make this by combining the present continuous suffix -ıyor with the past tense suffix -du and the personal ending -m (I).
How does the word çiftlik (farm) change into çiftliğinde?
First, the hard k at the end of çiftlik softens into a ğ because we added the possessive suffix -i (her farm). Then, to say 'at' the farm, we add the locative suffix -de. Because we are attaching this to a possessive suffix, we must use the buffer letter -n- in between, giving us çiftliğinde.
Why is there an -in suffix on ninemin?
This is the genitive case, which shows ownership, much like adding an apostrophe-s in English. Ninem means 'my granny', and adding -in makes it 'my granny's'. It pairs with çiftliği (her farm) to build the phrase 'my granny's farm'.
If kalıyordum already implies 'I used to stay', do I still need the word eskiden?
You don't strictly need it to make the sentence grammatically correct, but eskiden (meaning 'in the past' or 'formerly') is commonly used at the start of these sentences. It strongly emphasizes that this was a habit from a long time ago.
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