Breakdown of Akrabalarımız gelene kadar sokakta misket oynardık.
sokak
street
gelmek
to come
oynamak
to play
kadar
as ... as; until, up to
akraba
relative
misket
marble
Questions & Answers about Akrabalarımız gelene kadar sokakta misket oynardık.
How does oynardık translate to "we used to play"?
This verb is in the habitual past tense, which expresses actions we "used to" or "would" do in the past. It is built by combining the aorist (simple present) suffix with the past tense suffix. The root is oyna (play). Because it ends in a vowel, it takes the aorist suffix -r. Then we add the past tense -dı and the "we" ending -k, giving us oyna-r-dı-k.
Why is "until they arrived" translated as gelene kadar?
To say "until [someone does something]" in Turkish, you attach the suffix -(y)An to the verb root, followed by the dative suffix -(y)e/a, and then the word kadar. Here, the verb root is gel (come/arrive). Adding -en creates a verbal noun, and adding -e links it to kadar. Literally, it translates to "until the coming."
How do we know who is arriving if gelene kadar doesn't have a personal ending?
The structure -(y)AnA kadar does not take personal endings. Instead, you simply put the subject right before it in its plain form. In this sentence, akrabalarımız (our relatives) is the subject, so akrabalarımız gelene kadar tells us exactly who is doing the arriving.
Why is misket singular and unmarked, even though the English translation says "marbles"?
When you are talking about playing a type of game or a general activity, Turkish uses the singular, unmarked form of the noun placed directly before the verb. Misket acts as an indefinite, general object here. It is similar to saying "we used to do marble-playing" rather than referring to specific individual marbles.
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