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Questions & Answers about Otobüs kalkıyor.
How is the present continuous tense formed in kalkıyor?
The verb root is kalk (to get up / to depart). Because it ends in a consonant, we need a connecting vowel before adding the present continuous suffix -yor. According to 4-way vowel harmony, the 'a' in kalk means the connecting vowel must be 'ı'. Therefore, we get kalk + ı + yor = kalkıyor.
I thought the verb kalkmak meant "to get up". Why does it mean "departing" here?
You are exactly right! The primary meaning of kalkmak is "to get up" or "to stand up". However, in Turkish, it is also the standard verb used for vehicles like buses, trains, and airplanes to mean they are "departing" or "taking off".
Why isn't there a personal ending after -yor in this sentence?
In Turkish, the third-person singular (he, she, it) does not take an extra personal suffix. Since otobüs (the bus) is an "it", the verb is complete just by adding the tense marker -yor. If you wanted to say "I am departing", you would add the "I" suffix: kalkıyorum.
Where is the word for "The" in this sentence?
Turkish does not have a definite article like the English word "the". A naked noun like otobüs is usually understood as "the bus" from context. If you wanted to specifically say "A bus is departing", you would add the word for "a/one": Bir otobüs kalkıyor.