Breakdown of Fakir insanlara yardım etmeye kim gönüllü?
kim
who
insan
person
fakir
poor
yardım etmek
to help
gönüllü
willing
Questions & Answers about Fakir insanlara yardım etmeye kim gönüllü?
Why does the sentence use etmeye instead of the regular infinitive etmek?
In Turkish, being willing or volunteering for an action (gönüllü) requires that action to take the dative case. To do this, we use the verbal noun form etme (the act of doing), add a buffer y, and then attach the dative suffix -e. This gives us etmeye.
Why is it insanlara (to the people) instead of just insanları?
In English, we directly help someone, but in Turkish, you give help TO someone. The compound verb yardım etmek (to help) always requires its object to be in the dative case. So, insanlar (people) becomes insanlara (to the people).
Why is the question word kim (who) placed in the middle of the sentence instead of at the beginning?
In Turkish, the most important piece of information goes right before the verb or predicate. Since this is a question, the question word kim is the focus, so it naturally sits right in front of the predicate gönüllü. You will see this pattern often with question words!
Where is the verb for 'is' in 'Who is willing'?
The word gönüllü (willing or volunteer) acts as the predicate here. In the third person (he, she, it, or who), the verb 'to be' is often completely invisible and implied. So kim gönüllü? perfectly translates to 'who is willing?' without needing an extra verb word.
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