Breakdown of Soruyu nazikçe sorduk ama cevaplayamadı.
soru
question
sormak
to ask
ama
but
cevaplamak
to answer
Questions & Answers about Soruyu nazikçe sorduk ama cevaplayamadı.
How does the word nazikçe mean "politely"?
The suffix -ce or -çe is used to turn adjectives into adverbs. Here, it attaches to the adjective nazik (polite) to mean "in a polite way" or "politely". Since nazik ends in a hard consonant (k), the suffix changes to -çe to match.
Why is it soruyu instead of just soru?
Because we are talking about a specific question ("the question"), it needs the accusative (direct object) case. We take soru, add the buffer letter -y- because it ends in a vowel, and then add the accusative suffix -u.
What does the -ya- part do in the middle of cevaplayamadı?
That -a- (with the buffer -y- before it) shows inability. While cevaplamadı just means "he didn't answer", adding that little -a- right before the negative -ma- makes it cevaplayamadı, meaning "he couldn't answer".
There is no word for "he" in this sentence. How do we know who couldn't answer?
The verb cevaplayamadı ends with the past tense suffix -dı but has no personal ending after it. In Turkish, a verb with no personal ending in the past tense is always for the third person singular (he, she, or it).