Breakdown of Koşucu dörde çeyrek kala geçişi bitiriyor.
dört
four
bitirmek
to finish (something)
çeyrek
quarter (of an hour)
kala
to (the hour)
koşucu
runner
geçiş
crossing / passing
Questions & Answers about Koşucu dörde çeyrek kala geçişi bitiriyor.
Why is the word for four written as dörde instead of dört?
To say that an event happens at some minutes to the hour, Turkish adds the dative suffix (to/towards) to the hour. Here, dört gets the suffix -e. When adding a vowel to dört, the t softens to a d, making it dörde.
How does kala work in this sentence?
Kala comes from the verb kalmak and acts like the word remaining in time expressions. The formula [Hour + Dative] + [Minutes] + kala tells us when an action happens. So dörde çeyrek kala literally translates to with a quarter remaining to four.
Why does geçiş (crossing) have an -i at the end?
The word geçiş is the specific direct object of the verb bitiriyor (the runner is finishing the crossing). Therefore, it requires the definite accusative case suffix -i, becoming geçişi.
What is the difference between bitiyor and bitiriyor?
The base verb bitmek (to end) is intransitive, meaning it does not take a direct object (for example, geçiş bitiyor would mean the crossing ends). Because the runner is actively finishing something, we must use the transitive version bitirmek, which adds the causative suffix -ir. That gives us bitiriyor.
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