Breakdown of Maçtan önce buluşuyoruz.
buluşmak
to meet
maç
match / game (sports)
önce
before / first / firstly
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Questions & Answers about Maçtan önce buluşuyoruz.
If I wanted to ask the question that this sentence answers, where would I put ne zaman (when)?
You would say Ne zaman buluşuyoruz? (When are we meeting?). In Turkish, question words usually go in the same spot as the information they are asking for. Here, maçtan önce is the time information, so ne zaman simply replaces it.
Why is there a -tan added to the word maç?
In Turkish, to say 'before an event', you must attach the 'from' ending (the ablative case) to the noun right before the word önce. So, you are literally saying 'from the match before'.
Why is the ending -tan instead of the usual -dan?
Because of consonant harmony! The word maç ends in ç, which is a voiceless or 'hard' consonant. When adding a suffix that usually starts with d (like -dan), the d changes to a t to match the hard sound, giving us maçtan.
Can I use buluşuyoruz to mean meeting someone for the very first time?
No, buluşuyoruz comes from buluşmak, which means to meet up or get together with someone you generally already know. If you are meeting someone for the first time to get acquainted, you would use a different verb, tanışmak.