Breakdown of Şaşkınlıkla birbirimize baktık ve bayılayazdık.
ve
and
bakmak
to look
birbiri
each other / one another
bayılmak
to faint
şaşkınlık
astonishment / bewilderment
Questions & Answers about Şaşkınlıkla birbirimize baktık ve bayılayazdık.
How exactly does bayılayazdık mean "we almost fainted"?
It uses the approximative compound verb structure -(y)Ayazmak, which means "to almost do" an action but stopping just short of it. Here, we have the root bayıl- (to faint) + the linking vowel -a- + yaz- (the auxiliary verb for "almost") + the past tense -dı- + the "we" ending -k.
Is it common to use -(y)Ayazmak in everyday spoken Turkish like this?
It is perfectly understood, but it can sound slightly literary, old-fashioned, or extra dramatic in modern Turkish. In casual conversation, a Turkish speaker is more likely to use neredeyse (almost) or az kalsın (almost) with the past continuous or future-in-the-past tense, such as Az kalsın bayılıyorduk or Neredeyse bayılacaktık.
What suffixes make up the word şaşkınlıkla?
It starts with the adjective şaşkın (surprised or confused). The -lık suffix turns it into the abstract noun şaşkınlık (astonishment). Finally, the instrumental suffix -la (a shortened, attached form of ile, meaning "with" or "by") is added, giving us "with astonishment."
Why does the word for "each other" take the -e ending in birbirimize?
This is driven by the verb bakmak (to look). In Turkish, you direct your gaze to something, so bakmak always requires its object to be in the dative case (-e/-a). The base is birbirimiz (each other, literally "our each other"), and adding -e gives us birbirimize (at each other).
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