Breakdown of Her şoför kalkıştan önce aynaya bakıyor.
ayna
mirror
her
every
bakmak
to look
şoför
driver
önce
before / first / firstly
kalkış
departure
Questions & Answers about Her şoför kalkıştan önce aynaya bakıyor.
Why does kalkış take the -tan ending before önce?
When using önce (before) or sonra (after) with a noun, that noun must always take the ablative case (-dan, -den, -tan, -ten). So literally, Turkish says 'from departure before'.
How does the word kalkış relate to the verb kalkmak (to depart)?
The suffix -ış is added to the verb stem kalk- to create a noun representing the action itself. It turns the verb kalkmak (to depart) into the noun kalkış (departure).
Why is it aynaya instead of just ayna?
The verb bakmak (to look) requires the dative case (-a or -e) because you are directing your gaze to or towards a target. Since ayna ends in a vowel, it takes the buffer letter y before the -a suffix, making it aynaya.
Since this describes a general truth about every driver, why does it use the continuous tense bakıyor instead of the simple present tense bakar?
In conversational Turkish, the present continuous tense (-ıyor) is frequently used to describe general habits and routines. While bakar (the aorist tense) is also completely correct here, bakıyor is very common and natural for everyday speech.
Since the sentence is about all drivers generally, why is şoför singular instead of plural?
Just like in English, the Turkish word her (every) is always followed by a singular noun. You say her şoför (every driver), not her şoförler (every drivers).
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