Breakdown of Bulutlar kararmakla kalmayıp büyük bir afet getirdi.
bir
a / an
büyük
big
kalmak
to stay / to be left / to remain (in a state)
getirmek
to bring
bulut
cloud
afet
disaster (esp. natural)
kararmak
to darken / to turn black
Questions & Answers about Bulutlar kararmakla kalmayıp büyük bir afet getirdi.
How does the structure kararmakla kalmayıp translate to 'not merely darkened'?
This structure is built from the infinitive kararmak (to darken) plus -la (with), followed by kalmayıp. Kalmayıp combines kalmak (to stay or remain), the negative -ma, and the linking suffix -yıp. Literally, it means 'not remaining with darkening, and...', which gives us the formal 'not only X, but also Y' meaning.
Since the clouds darkening happened in the past, why is there no past tense marker on kararmakla kalmayıp?
The linking suffix -yıp connects two actions and automatically applies the tense and subject of the final verb to the first one. Because the main verb getirdi is in the past tense, the darkening action is also understood to have happened in the past.
Does the verb kararmak (to darken) share a root with the color kara (black)?
Yes, it does. The suffix -ar or -er is added to adjectives to mean 'becoming' that quality. Here, kara (black or dark) drops its final vowel and takes -ar to become kararmak (to grow dark or to blacken).
Why is the word order büyük bir afet instead of bir büyük afet?
In Turkish, when an adjective modifies a noun that also takes the indefinite article bir, the standard word order is Adjective + bir + Noun. Placing bir at the very beginning is grammatically possible, but it changes the focus to mean 'exactly one big disaster' rather than simply 'a big disaster'.
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