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Questions & Answers about Sık sık sohbet ediyoruz.
Why is the word sık repeated twice?
In Turkish, it's very common to repeat a word to create an adverb or make the meaning stronger. The word sık by itself means "frequent", but repeating it as sık sık creates the adverb "frequently" or "often".
Sohbet means "chat". Why do we add ediyoruz?
Sohbet is actually a noun meaning "conversation" or "a chat". To turn it into an action, Turkish uses the helper verb etmek (to do). So, sohbet etmek literally means "to make conversation".
The dictionary says the helper verb is etmek, but here it's spelled ediyoruz. Why did the "t" change to a "d"?
This is a spelling rule in Turkish called consonant softening. When certain hard consonants like "t" are followed by a vowel (like the "i" in -iyoruz), they soften to make pronunciation easier. Here, the "t" in et softens to a "d", becoming ed-.
The ending -iyoruz is the present continuous tense (we are chatting), but the English translation says "we chat". Why?
In Turkish, the present continuous tense (-iyor) is very often used for regular, repeated habits, much like the simple present tense in English. Because of the time words sık sık (often), we know this is a habit, so "we chat" is the most natural translation.