Learn Turkish: Batarya yüzde elli, tamamen şarj etmek ne kadar sürüyor? - The battery is at fifty percent, how long does it take to fully charge?

Ne kadar literally means 'what amount' or 'how much'. But when you pair it with a verb about time or duration, like sürmek (to last / to take time), it translates naturally into English as 'how long'.

Doesn't the verb sürmek mean 'to drive'?

It does! For example, araba sürmek means 'to drive a car'. However, another very common meaning of sürmek is 'to last' or 'to take a certain amount of time'. Here, ne kadar sürüyor? means 'how much time does it take?'

Why is 'fifty percent' written as yüzde elli?

In Turkish, percentages are expressed using the locative case suffix -de or -da (in/at). Yüzde literally means 'in a hundred'. So, yüzde elli translates word-for-word as 'in a hundred, fifty'. Notice that the word order is the reverse of English!

Why is şarj etmek (to charge) left in its dictionary form with -mek / -mak?

In this sentence, the infinitive şarj etmek acts as a noun: the act of charging. The main, conjugated verb of the clause is sürüyor (it takes). So the sentence structure is essentially: '[To fully charge] takes [how long]?'