Breakdown of Dün sınav zordu ve ben çok hastaydım.
ben
I
hasta
sick
çok
very
zor
difficult
ve
and
sınav
exam
dün
yesterday
Questions & Answers about Dün sınav zordu ve ben çok hastaydım.
Why does zor take the ending -du instead of -dı?
The past tense ending changes to match the last vowel of the word according to 4-way vowel harmony. Since zor (difficult) has the vowel 'o', the ending becomes -du. So, zor + -du = zordu (was difficult).
Why is there a y in the middle of hastaydım?
The word hasta (sick) ends in a vowel. When we attach the past tense suffix to a word ending in a vowel, Turkish requires the buffer letter y to connect them smoothly. This gives us hasta + y + dı + m.
How does hastaydım mean 'I was sick'?
Let us break it down! Hasta means sick. The -ydı part is the past tense ending meaning 'was' (including the buffer y). Finally, the -m at the end is the personal ending for 'I' (ben). Put it all together: hasta-ydı-m (I was sick).
Since hastaydım already means 'I was sick', do I need to include ben in this sentence?
No, you do not have to include it. Because the -m at the end of hastaydım already tells us it was 'I' who was sick, saying ben is optional. Using it here just adds a little emphasis or makes the sentence flow nicely after ve (and).
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