Breakdown of Toplantıda kimse şaka yapmadı.
yapmak
to do / to make
toplantı
meeting
kimse
no one / anyone
şaka
joke
şaka yapmak
to joke, to play a joke
Questions & Answers about Toplantıda kimse şaka yapmadı.
Since kimse means 'no one,' why is the verb yapmadı in the negative?
In Turkish, kimse works a bit like 'anyone.' To say 'no one,' you must pair kimse with a negative verb. This is why yapmadı (didn't make) has the negative suffix -ma. You will always see kimse used with negative verbs to mean 'no one'.
Should the verb be plural since 'no one' applies to everyone in the room?
No, just like in English, kimse is treated as a singular subject. That is why the verb is the third-person singular yapmadı rather than the plural yapmadılar.
In English, we usually 'tell' a joke. Why does Turkish use yapmak (to make/do) here?
In Turkish, the fixed phrase for joking is şaka yapmak (to make a joke). You cannot use typical 'telling' verbs like söylemek or anlatmak with şaka.
Why is the suffix -da added to toplantı?
The word toplantı means 'meeting.' To say that something happened at or in the meeting, you must add the locative case suffix -da. This tells us the location where the action (or lack of action) took place.
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