Questions & Answers about O, askerken çok yalnızdı.
How do we get 'while he was a soldier' from just askerken?
The word asker means 'soldier', and the suffix -ken means 'while'. When you attach -ken directly to a noun or adjective, it means 'while being...'. So, askerken literally translates to 'while being a soldier'.
Why isn't there a past tense or personal ending on askerken to show 'while he was'?
The suffix -ken is special because it does not take personal or tense endings. We figure out who the sentence is about and when it happened from the subject (O) and the word at the end (yalnızdı), which carries the past tense suffix -dı.
Does the suffix -ken follow vowel harmony rules?
No, -ken is one of the rare Turkish suffixes that never changes for vowel harmony. It is always -ken, regardless of the vowels in the word it attaches to. You will never see it change to '-kan'.
yalnız usually means 'alone'. Can it also mean 'lonely'?
Yes, yalnız describes both the physical state of being 'alone' and the emotional state of being 'lonely'. With the word çok (very) used here, 'very lonely' is the most natural translation.