Learn Turkish: Saat altıda uyanamadık, bu yüzden trene yetişemedik. - We could not wake up at six o'clock, therefore we could not catch the train.

Let's break it down! The root verb is uyanmak (to wake up). We drop the -mak and add -ama- which shows inability (cannot). Then we add the past tense -dı and the 'we' ending -k. Put it all together: uyan-ama-dı-k (we could not wake up).

Why does uyanamadık use -ama- but yetişemedik uses -eme-?

This happens because of A-type vowel harmony. The inability suffix has two forms: -ama- and -eme-. Because the last vowel in uyan- is a back vowel (a), we use -ama-. The last vowel in yetiş- (to reach/catch) is a front vowel (i), so it takes -eme-, making it yetiş-eme-di-k.

In English we say we catch 'the train', so why does tren have the 'to' ending in trene?

In Turkish, the verb yetişmek means 'to reach', 'to arrive in time for', or 'to catch up with'. Because you are moving towards the train to catch it, this verb requires the dative case (the 'to/towards' ending). That is why we say trene yetişmek (literally 'to reach to the train').

What is the literal translation of bu yüzden?