Learn Turkish: Yeni frekansta akış başlıyor, saat beşe çeyrek var. - The schedule is starting on the new frequency, it is a quarter to five.

To state the current time when it is 'to' the hour, Turkish uses the hour with the Dative case suffix (-e or -a), then the minutes, and finally the word var (there is/exists). Literally, beşe çeyrek var means 'there is a quarter to five'.

Why do we use var here instead of kala?

We use var because the sentence is simply stating what the current time is (It is a quarter to five). If we wanted to say that an action happens at a quarter to five, we would use kala instead.

Why is the suffix -ta used in frekansta instead of -da?

The locative suffix (-da/-de), meaning 'on' or 'at', changes to -ta/-te after a voiceless consonant. Since frekans ends in the voiceless consonant s, we use -ta to match the hard sound.

How does the word akış mean 'schedule' in this context?

The literal meaning of akış is 'flow' or 'stream', coming from the verb akmak (to flow). In media and broadcasting, it is commonly used to describe the programming schedule or broadcast feed flowing from one show to the next.