Breakdown of O lastiği tamir edemedi, problem büyüktü.
o
that / he / she / it
büyük
big
problem
problem
tamir etmek
to repair
Questions & Answers about O lastiği tamir edemedi, problem büyüktü.
How do we get "could not" out of edemedi?
This is the core of your current lesson! The verb is tamir etmek (to repair). The root et changes to ed when we add a vowel. First we add -e for inability (could not), then -me for the negative, and finally -di for the past tense. Together: ed-e-me-di.
Why is the word for tire spelled lastiği with a ğ here?
The dictionary form of the word is lastik (tire). Because he couldn't repair the specific tire, it needs the accusative case suffix -i. When a word ends in k and you add a vowel, the k softens into a ğ (soft g), making it lastiği.
Could O lastiği also translate to "that tire"?
Yes, it could! In Turkish, o can mean 'he/she/it' or 'that'. Without a comma after O, the sentence could translate to 'He could not repair the tire' (where o is the subject) or '(Someone) could not repair that tire' (where o points to the tire). We rely on the context of the conversation to know which is meant.
Why does the past tense on büyük (big) use a t (büyüktü) instead of a d?