Breakdown of Kaç saattir ayakta ve uykusuzsun?
kaç
how many
ve
and
saat
hour / o'clock
uykusuz
sleepless
ayak
foot
Questions & Answers about Kaç saattir ayakta ve uykusuzsun?
Why is the duration suffix -tir on saattir instead of -dır?
Two rules apply here. First, saat ends in the hard consonant t, which changes the d in the suffix to t (consonant assimilation). Second, saat is a loanword and an exception to normal vowel harmony. It takes front vowels, making it saattir instead of the expected saattır.
Why is there no past tense in the Turkish sentence for "have you been"?
In English, we use "have been" for states that started in the past and continue now. Turkish simply uses the time duration suffix -DIr (here as -tir) alongside a present state. The suffix -tir already provides the meaning of "for X hours up until now", so no past tense ending is needed.
Does ayakta literally mean "on your feet"?
Yes! It is made of ayak (foot) plus the locative suffix -ta (in/on/at). While it translates literally to "on foot", it is the standard Turkish expression for "standing up" or being "on your feet".
Why is the "you" ending (-sun) only on uykusuzsun? Don't we need it on ayakta too?
When you have two descriptions joined by ve (and) that share the same subject, Turkish usually attaches the personal ending only to the last word in the list. The -sun at the end naturally applies to both ayakta (you are on your feet) and uykusuz (you are sleepless).
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