Questions & Answers about Cevaptan emin değilim.
Why does the word cevap have the -tan ending here?
In Turkish, the word emin (sure) requires the noun it refers to to take the ablative case, which is the 'from' ending. While in English we say 'sure about' or 'sure of' the answer, in Turkish you are literally 'sure from' it. That is why cevap gets a 'from' ending.
The 'from' ending is usually -dan or -den. Why is it -tan in cevaptan?
This happens because of a pronunciation rule called consonant assimilation. Because cevap ends with the voiceless consonant p, the soft d in -dan turns into a hard t to match it, making cevaptan. You will often see this referred to as the Fıstıkçı Şahap rule.
How do we get değilim for 'I am not'?
Could I just say Cevaptan emin değil?
No, because that would mean 'He/She/It is not sure about the answer.' You must add the personal suffix -im to the negative word at the end to show that it is 'I' who is not sure.
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