Question 1

What does the -ca suffix do in olgunca?

Accepted Answer

It turns the adjective olgun (mature) into an adverb. In this sentence, olgunca means "maturely" or "in a mature way," describing exactly how he spoke (konuştu).

Question 2

I learned that -ca / -ce can mean "quite" or "rather". Does it mean that here?

Accepted Answer

The suffix -ca / -ce has a few different jobs! When attached to an adjective describing a noun, it means "quite" or "rather" (like olgunca bir çocuk - "a rather mature child"). But when it describes an action (a verb), as it does here with konuştu, it acts like the English "-ly" to mean "maturely".

Question 3

Why does the sentence use yaşına instead of just yaşı before göre?

Accepted Answer

The word göre (meaning "compared to" or "according to") always requires the dative suffix (-e / -a) on the word right before it. So we must say yaşına göre (compared to his age) instead of just yaşı göre.

Question 4

Where does the -n- come from in yaşına?

Accepted Answer

Let's break the word down: yaş (age) + -ı (his, possessive) + -a (dative, required by göre). In Turkish, whenever you add a case ending (like the dative -a) right after a third-person possessive suffix (-ı / -i / -sı / -si), you must insert the buffer letter -n- between them.

Yaşına göre çok olgunca konuştu.

Breakdown of Yaşına göre çok olgunca konuştu.

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