Breakdown of Pul almak için postaneye gittim.
gitmek
to go
almak
to take, to buy
için
for
postane
post office
pul
stamp
Questions & Answers about Pul almak için postaneye gittim.
How does almak için mean 'to buy'?
In Turkish, to express purpose ('in order to do something'), you use the dictionary form of the verb (the infinitive ending in -mak or -mek) followed directly by için. So almak için literally translates to 'in order to buy' or simply 'to buy'.
The English translation says 'a stamp', so why is the word bir missing before pul?
When you are talking about a general, non-specific item, Turkish often leaves out the word bir ('a' or 'an'). Because you went to buy a stamp in general, rather than one specific stamp you had in mind, you can just say pul almak instead of bir pul almak.
Why is there a -ye at the end of postaneye?
The base word for post office is postane. To say you are going 'to' a destination, you add the dative case ending (-a or -e). Since postane ends in a vowel, we need the buffer letter y before adding the -e ending, resulting in postaneye ('to the post office').
Why is the past tense ending in gittim spelled with a 't' instead of a 'd'?
The root of the verb 'to go' is git, which ends in a hard consonant (t). When a suffix starting with d (like the past tense -di) attaches to a word ending in a hard consonant, the d changes to a t to match it. This makes it easier to pronounce gittim rather than gitdim.
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