Breakdown of Saat ikiyi yirmi geçiyor, haber bülteni başlıyor mu?
iki
two
yirmi
twenty
başlamak
to begin, to start
saat
hour / o'clock
geçmek
to pass / to cross / to shift (into a gear)
mi
question particle (mı/mi/mu/mü)
haber
news
bülten
bulletin
Questions & Answers about Saat ikiyi yirmi geçiyor, haber bülteni başlıyor mu?
Why is it ikiyi instead of just iki?
To say a certain amount of minutes is past the hour, Turkish uses the verb geçiyor (is passing). Because the hour is the thing being passed, it acts as the direct object and takes the accusative case. Since iki ends in a vowel, we add the buffer y and the accusative suffix -i to make ikiyi.
Does saat always go at the beginning when telling time?
Yes, when stating the exact time in response to Saat kaç? (What time is it?), the phrase conventionally starts with the word saat. A literal English translation of the first clause helps the structure make sense: The clock is passing two by twenty.
Why is there an -i at the end of bülteni?
This is a two-word noun compound. When putting two nouns together to create a single concept like news bulletin, the first noun stays bare, but the second noun gets a possessive suffix. Here, haber (news) is paired with bülten (bulletin), so bülten takes the third-person possessive suffix -i to become haber bülteni.
I know the verb to start is başlamak. Why is it spelled başlıyor here?
When you add the present continuous suffix -iyor to a verb stem ending in a wide vowel like a or e, that vowel narrows. The verb stem here is başla-. The ending a narrows to ı to fit the suffix, resulting in başlıyor.
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