Questions & Answers about Dün bir film seyrettim.
How do we know this means 'I' watched if the word 'ben' (I) isn't in the sentence?
In Turkish, the subject is often left out because the verb ending tells you who is doing the action. The -m at the very end of seyrettim is the personal ending for 'I' in the past tense. You only need to add ben if you want to emphasize it.
The past tense suffix is usually '-di', so why is it '-ti' in 'seyrettim'?
This is because of consonant harmony. The stem of the verb to watch is seyret. Since it ends in a hard consonant (t), the past tense suffix changes from -di to -ti to make it easier to pronounce. Then we add the -m for 'I', giving us seyrettim.
I learned that 'bir' means the number 'one'. Does this mean 'I watched exactly one movie'?
It can, but usually bir placed before a noun simply acts like the English word 'a' or 'an'. So bir film generally just translates to 'a movie'. If you wanted to stress that you watched exactly one movie, you would emphasize the word bir heavily when speaking.
Why is the verb 'seyrettim' at the very end of the sentence?
Standard Turkish follows a Subject-Object-Verb word order. The time word dün (yesterday) sets the scene, the object bir film (a movie) is in the middle, and the action verb seyrettim (watched) anchors the sentence at the very end.
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