Learn Turkish: Beşe çeyrek kala buradayım. - I am here at a quarter to five.

In your current lesson, you learned exact hours like saat beş (five o'clock). To say 'at a quarter to' an hour, you take the hour, add the 'to' suffix (-a or -e), and add çeyrek kala. Here, beş becomes beşe. Çeyrek means 'quarter' and kala means 'remaining'.

Why does 'beş' (five) have an '-e' at the end?

The -e suffix is the Turkish equivalent of 'to' or 'towards' (the dative case). Because we are counting down 'to' five o'clock, the number needs this direction suffix. If it were a quarter to six (altı), it would be altıya.

Does 'kala' mean 'at'?

Not exactly. Kala comes from the verb kalmak, which means 'to remain' or 'to stay'. In time expressions, çeyrek kala literally translates to 'a quarter remaining'. It is used specifically to express an action happening 'at' a certain time before the hour.

How does 'buradayım' break down to mean 'I am here'?