Breakdown of Asansör yok, onuncu kata yürüdük.
yok
there is not / non-existent
kat
floor
yürümek
to walk
asansör
elevator
onuncu
tenth
Questions & Answers about Asansör yok, onuncu kata yürüdük.
Why is it kata and not kada? Shouldn't the 't' change to a 'd' when adding a vowel?
You're thinking of the consonant mutation rule (like gitmek becoming gidiyor). However, kat (floor/level) is an exception. In Turkish, most single-syllable words keep their hard consonants when adding a vowel suffix. Because of this rule, we add the dative suffix -a (to) and it stays kata.
How is the word onuncu (tenth) formed?
It comes from on (ten). To make ordinal numbers (first, second, tenth, etc.), Turkish adds the suffix -ıncı (or -inci, -uncu, -üncü depending on vowel harmony). Since on has the vowel 'o', it takes the -uncu suffix, creating onuncu.
The English translation says 'we walked up to', but does yürüdük mean 'walked up'?
Yürüdük simply means 'we walked'. The 'up' in the English translation is implied by the real-world context of going to a higher floor. Turkish just uses the dative case -a on kat to show the destination (kata = to the floor), so 'we walked to the tenth floor' naturally implies the upward journey.
Why isn't there a word for 'so' or 'therefore' between the two parts of the sentence?
In informal or spoken Turkish, it is very common to connect a cause and an effect using just a comma, letting the context do the work. You could insert a conjunction like bu yüzden (therefore) right after the comma, but it sounds completely natural to leave it out.
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