Learn Turkish: Beş saattir ayaktayız, yorgunuz ama dayanıyoruz. - We have been on our feet for five hours, we are tired but holding out.

There are two rules at play here. First, because saat ends in a hard consonant (t), the suffix changes from d to t. Second, saat is an Arabic loanword and is a famous exception to vowel harmony rules. Even though it has a back vowel (a), it takes front-vowel suffixes. That is why it gets -tir instead of the expected -tır.

English says 'We have been on our feet', which is past tense. Why does the Turkish sentence use the present tense ayaktayız?

When a state or action starts in the past and is still continuing right now, Turkish uses the present tense combined with the -DIr duration suffix. You do not use the past tense here because you are still standing. Beş saattir ayaktayız literally translates to 'We are on our feet for five hours'.

How does the word ayaktayız break down to mean 'we are on our feet'?

It is made of ayak (foot), the locative suffix -ta (on/at), the buffer letter -y-, and the personal suffix -ız (we are). So literally it means 'we are on foot'. This is the standard idiom to say you are standing up or are out of bed.

What is the root of dayanıyoruz and what does it mean?

The root verb is dayanmak, which means to endure, resist, or hold out. It can also mean to lean against something. In this context, paired with being tired, it means 'we are enduring' or 'we are holding out'.