Breakdown of Ellerinizi su ve sabunla yıkayın.
su
water
ve
and
yıkamak
to wash
el
hand
ile
with / by / and (linking nouns)
sabun
soap
Questions & Answers about Ellerinizi su ve sabunla yıkayın.
Why is the "with" suffix only attached to sabun (soap) and not su (water)?
When you have a list of things connected by ve (and), you only need to attach the -(y)la / -(y)le suffix to the last item in the list. So su ve sabunla covers both words, meaning "with water and soap".
Is sabunla the same as the suffix we learned earlier to say a coffee is "with milk" (sütlü)?
Good catch, but they are completely different! The earlier suffix you learned means "containing" or "having" (so sabunlu would mean "soapy"). The ending here is -la, which is the shortened form of the word ile. It means "by means of" or "using". Here you are washing your hands using soap.
Let's break down the word ellerinizi. What do all those suffixes mean?
The root is el (hand). We add -ler for plural (hands), then -iniz for the formal/plural "your" (your hands). The final -i is the accusative case marker, which we add because "your hands" is the direct object receiving the action of the washing.
Why does the verb yıkayın have a -yın at the end?
The base verb is yıka (wash). By itself, yıka is a command for one person you know informally. The -yın ending makes it a formal or plural command. Notice how this politely matches the formal/plural "your" we saw in ellerinizi.
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