Breakdown of Markette elma, portakal falan aldım.
elma
apple
market
supermarket
almak
to take, to buy
portakal
orange
falan
and so on, ... or so
Questions & Answers about Markette elma, portakal falan aldım.
Why is the suffix on market written as -te instead of -de?
The word market ends in the voiceless consonant t. In Turkish, when a word ends in a voiceless consonant, the suffix that follows must also start with a voiceless consonant. This changes the standard in/at suffix from -de to -te. Because the last vowel in market is e, vowel harmony keeps the suffix vowel as e, resulting in markette.
Why are elma and portakal in their singular form here?
In Turkish, when you refer to a general category of items as the direct object of a verb (like buying apples in general, not specific ones), you typically do not use the plural suffix -lar or -ler. The singular form represents the whole category.
I learned that direct objects take the accusative suffix. Why isn't it elmayı?
The accusative suffix is only used for specific, defined objects, which translates to buying THE apple. Because the speaker is just buying general apples and oranges, the nouns stay in their plain, unmarked form.
How do you use the word falan?
Falan is a very useful, casual word meaning and so on, stuff like that, or or something. You just put it after a noun or a list of nouns to indicate that there were other similar things included that you aren't bothering to name.
How does the word aldım break down to mean I bought?
It starts with the verb root al- (buy or take). To this, we add the past tense marker -dı to make bought, and finally the first-person suffix -m to show that I am the one who bought them.
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