Breakdown of Ispanağı senin kadar hızlı yutmazdım.
sen
you
hızlı
fast
kadar
as ... as; until, up to
ıspanak
spinach
Questions & Answers about Ispanağı senin kadar hızlı yutmazdım.
How do we get "wouldn't swallow" from yutmazdım?
It uses the aorist past negative. The root is yut- (to swallow). We add the aorist negative suffix -maz, followed by the past tense -dı and the personal ending -m. The structure -mAzdI is used for both "used to not do" (habitual past) and "would not do" (conditional past), which perfectly fits "wouldn't swallow" here.
Why is "spinach" spelled ıspanağı with a ğ instead of a k?
The base word is ıspanak. Because we are talking about the spinach as a specific direct object, it needs the accusative case ending -ı. When a vowel suffix is added to a word ending in k, the k softens into a "yumuşak ge" (ğ). Therefore, ıspanak plus -ı becomes ıspanağı.
Why is it senin kadar instead of just sen kadar?
The word kadar translates to "as much as" or "as... as" in this context. When used with personal pronouns like ben or sen, Turkish grammar requires the pronoun to be in the genitive (possessive) case. This means you must say benim kadar (as much as me) or senin kadar (as much as you).
Does hızlı need an extra suffix to act as an adverb describing how someone swallows?