Breakdown of Hasta insanlardan uzak duruyoruz.
hasta
sick
insan
person
uzak durmak
to stay away from (-DAn)
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Questions & Answers about Hasta insanlardan uzak duruyoruz.
Why does "insanlar" (people) have "-dan" at the end?
The suffix -dan is the ablative case, which means "from". Because the sentence means "we stay away from sick people", we attach -dan to insanlar to make insanlardan.
Why is the suffix "-dan" and not "-den" here?
Turkish suffixes change their vowels to match the last vowel of the word they attach to. The word insanlar ends with the plural suffix -lar, which has an "a". Since "a" is a back vowel, the ablative suffix takes the back vowel form -dan instead of -den.
I thought "duruyoruz" meant "we stand" or "we stop". Why is it translated as "we stay"?
On its own, the verb root dur can mean "stand" or "stop". However, when paired with uzak (far/away), it forms the phrase uzak durmak, which means "to stay away" or literally "to stand far".
Since "insanlardan" is plural (people), why doesn't "hasta" (sick) get a plural suffix too?
In Turkish, adjectives like hasta do not change to match the noun they describe. You only make the noun plural. So it is hasta insanlar (sick people), not hastalar insanlar.