Questions & Answers about Dünden beri yağmur yağıyor.
How do dün and beri work together to mean 'since yesterday'?
To say 'since' a certain time, Turkish uses the postposition beri. But the word before it must take the ablative case ending, which means 'from'. So we take dün (yesterday), add -den (from), and add beri to get dünden beri (since yesterday).
Why does the sentence use the present tense yağıyor when the English translation says 'has been raining'?
In Turkish, if an action started in the past but is still continuing right now, you use the present continuous tense (-iyor). Since it is still raining, Turkish simply says it 'is raining' since yesterday.
If yağmur means rain, what does yağıyor mean? Are we saying 'rain is raining'?
Yes, exactly! In Turkish, you express precipitation by pairing the noun for the weather with the verb yağmak, which means 'to fall from the sky' or 'to precipitate'. So yağmur yağıyor literally translates to 'rain is falling'.
Why does dün take the -den ending instead of -dan?
This is due to vowel harmony. The vowel in dün is 'ü', which is a front vowel. The ablative (from) ending has two forms: -dan for back vowels and -den for front vowels. Because of the 'ü', we must use -den.