Breakdown of O ölecek kadar hastaydı.
o
that / he / she / it
hasta
sick
kadar
as ... as; until, up to
ölmek
to die
Questions & Answers about O ölecek kadar hastaydı.
Why is the future tense suffix -ecek used in ölecek when the sentence is in the past tense (hastaydı)?
In the structure -(y)AcAk kadar, the suffix -ecek (or -acak) isn't acting as the main time marker. Instead, it combines with kadar to mean "to the point of doing something" or "enough that it would happen". The actual time the overall event takes place is shown only by the final verb, which is in the past tense here (hastaydı).
How does the word order here compare to the English "so... that..." structure?
Could we use the past/present participle -dığı here instead, making it öldüğü kadar?
No, because they express different things. -(y)AcAk kadar is used for potential, extremes, or extreme results ("to the point that she would die"). If you used -dığı kadar (öldüğü kadar), it would mean "as much as she actually died", which treats the dying as an already completed fact rather than a measure of how sick she was!
Why is there a y in the middle of hastaydı?
This is a quick refresher on the past tense "to be" suffix. When attaching the past tense ending (-dı / -di / -du / -dü) to a word that ends in a vowel, like hasta (sick), you must insert the buffer letter y. This prevents two vowels from clashing, making it hastaydı (she was sick).
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