Breakdown of İspanyolca sertifikası aldığın okul nerede?
okul
school
nerede
where
almak
to take, to buy
İspanyolca
Spanish (language)
sertifika
certificate
Questions & Answers about İspanyolca sertifikası aldığın okul nerede?
How does aldığın okul mean "the school where you got"? Shouldn't there be a word for "where"?
In English, we use "where" to link a place to a relative clause. Turkish doesn't use a separate connecting word for this. Instead, it uses the exact same -dık / -dik participle that it uses for direct objects. Because a school is a place, context tells us that aldığın okul means "the school where you got [something]" rather than "the school that you bought."
How do we know it was you who got the certificate, since the word senin (your) isn't in the sentence?
In this type of relative clause, the person doing the action is marked by a possessive suffix on the participle itself. The base participle is aldık (getting). By adding the 2nd person singular possessive suffix -ın, it becomes aldığın (literally "your-getting").
Why does sertifika have an -sı at the end?
This is a noun compound (two nouns joined together to make a new concept). When the first noun doesn't actually "own" the second noun, only the second noun gets a possessive suffix. İspanyolca (Spanish) + sertifika (certificate) + -sı (compound suffix) makes İspanyolca sertifikası (Spanish certificate).
Since the certificate is the object being received, why isn't it in the accusative case (e.g., sertifikasını)?
The accusative case is only used for specific or definite direct objects. Because the speaker is talking about receiving a Spanish certificate in a general, indefinite sense ("a Spanish certificate"), it acts as an indefinite object and doesn't take the accusative ending.
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