Breakdown of Takımdaşım, antrenmana geç kaldım diye özür diledi.
özür dilemek
to apologize
diye
saying / asking / that (quoting)
antrenman
training / practice (sports, physical)
geç kalmak
to be late
Questions & Answers about Takımdaşım, antrenmana geç kaldım diye özür diledi.
How is the word takımdaşım formed, and what exactly does the -daş suffix add?
Takımdaşım is made of takım (team) + the fellowship suffix -daş + the possessive suffix -ım (my). The -DAş suffix attaches to nouns to describe someone who shares that thing with you (a fellow or companion). A takımdaş is someone you share a team with. You will also see this in common words like vatandaş (fellow citizen, from vatan = homeland) and meslektaş (colleague, from meslek = profession). Remember that it follows consonant mutation, which is why it becomes -taş after hard consonants.
The English translation says 'he was late', but the Turkish says geç kaldım (I was late). Why is it in the first person?
Turkish frequently handles reported speech or someone's inner reasoning by quoting them directly using diye (saying). Literally, the sentence translates to: 'My teammate apologized saying I was late to the training.' At the B2 level, this is a great pattern to master: using a direct quote followed by diye is often much more natural and common in spoken Turkish than building a complex indirect reported speech clause.
Why is the dative case used on the word antrenman (antrenmana)?
The compound verb geç kalmak (to be late) always takes the dative case for the destination or event. While in English you are late for something, in Turkish you are late to it. So, 'late for training' translates to antrenmana geç kalmak.