Breakdown of Futbol maçı ne zaman başlıyor?
başlamak
to begin, to start
maç
match / game (sports)
ne zaman
when
futbol
football
Questions & Answers about Futbol maçı ne zaman başlıyor?
Where does ne zaman go in a Turkish sentence? Why isn't it at the beginning like in English?
In Turkish, question words usually go right before the verb. Since the verb (başlıyor) is at the end of the sentence, ne zaman (when) sits right in front of it, rather than at the beginning of the sentence.
Why is the word for match maçı instead of just maç?
The -ı links futbol and maç together to form a noun compound. In Turkish, when you put two nouns together to make a specific concept (like a "football match"), the second noun takes a possessive suffix. It is almost like saying "football its-match".
The verb başlamak (to start) ends in "a". Why is it başlıyor instead of "başlayor"?
When a verb root ends in -a or -e (like başla-), that vowel changes when you add the -ıyor (present continuous) suffix. The a narrows to an ı, making it başlıyor.
The -ıyor ending means an action is happening right now. Why does the translation say "does... start"?
Turkish often uses the present continuous tense (-ıyor) to talk about scheduled future events or routines. This is similar to English, where you can say "The match is starting at 8:00" to mean the same thing as "The match starts at 8:00".