Breakdown of Güneş doğmadan önce hava en soğuktur.
soğuk
cold
en
most
önce
before / first / firstly
hava
weather
güneş
sun
doğmak
to rise / to be born
Questions & Answers about Güneş doğmadan önce hava en soğuktur.
Why is there a -tur at the end of soğuktur instead of just saying soğuk?
The suffix -tur (a variation of the factual suffix -DIr) is used here to state a general, scientific, or universal fact. While you might just use soğuk in everyday conversation to describe today's weather, adding -tur makes this sentence a stated general truth: 'It is a fact that the weather is coldest then.'
How does doğmadan önce mean 'before the sun rises'? I thought önce just meant 'before'.
To say 'before doing an action' in Turkish, you attach the suffix -mAdAn (or -meden) to the verb root, and follow it with önce. The verb root doğ- means 'to rise' (or 'to be born'), so doğmadan önce literally translates as 'before rising'.
Is en the only word needed to change 'cold' into 'coldest'?
Yes! Placing the word en directly before an adjective creates the superlative form (the 'most' or '-est'). You do not need to add any extra suffixes to the adjective itself. Soğuk means 'cold', and en soğuk means 'coldest'.
Why is the word hava used here if it usually translates to 'air'?
In Turkish, the word hava means both 'air' and 'weather'. Whenever you are talking about the temperature or conditions outside being hot, cold, sunny, or cloudy, you use hava to refer to the weather.
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