Breakdown of Saat dörde iki var, konuğu kim bekliyor?
kim
who
iki
two
dört
four
var
there is / existent
beklemek
to wait
saat
hour / o'clock
konuk
guest
Questions & Answers about Saat dörde iki var, konuğu kim bekliyor?
How does dörde iki var translate to "it is two to four"?
To tell time using "to" (like "two minutes to four"), Turkish uses the dative case on the hour, plus the number of minutes, plus the word var ("there is"). So dört (four) gets the dative suffix -e to show direction toward the hour. Literally, it means "To four, two there is."
The word for four is dört, so why is it spelled with a "d" in dörde?
This is a case of consonant mutation. When you add a vowel suffix like the dative -e to dört, the hard t softens into a d. It is one of the few numbers where this mutation happens, so it is good to memorize!
Why does konuk become konuğu here?
Two things happen here. First, unlike English where you wait "for" someone, the Turkish verb beklemek (to wait) takes a direct object. Because we mean a specific person ("the guest"), we add the accusative case suffix -u. Second, adding this vowel causes consonant mutation, turning the hard k at the end of konuk into a "soft g" (ğ).
Why is there no word for "minutes" (like dakika) in this sentence?
When telling the exact time in Turkish, you generally leave out the word for "minutes". Just saying the number (like iki) right before var or geçiyor is perfectly understood as "two minutes".
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