Breakdown of O üniversite çok köklü. Kaldı ki, en prestijli bölüm orada.
o
that / he / she / it
çok
very
orada
over there
en
most
üniversite
university
bölüm
section / department
köklü
well-established
kaldı ki
moreover / besides (the fact remains, anyway)
prestijli
prestigious (loanword)
Questions & Answers about O üniversite çok köklü. Kaldı ki, en prestijli bölüm orada.
How is Kaldı ki different from just saying Ayrıca (besides/also) here?
While ayrıca simply adds a parallel piece of information, kaldı ki brings rhetorical weight. It introduces a stronger, clinching argument to back up your previous point, much like saying "not to mention" or "moreover" in English. Here, it emphasizes that the department's prestige makes the university's value undeniable.
Köklü is translated as "well-established." Does it have to do with the word kök (root)?
Yes, exactly! Kök means "root," and the suffix -lü means "with" or "having." Literally, it translates to "having roots" or "deep-rooted." It is the standard way in Turkish to describe institutions, traditions, or families with a long, respected history.
Why aren't there any verbs or "to be" suffixes at the end of these sentences, like köklüdür or oradadır?
In conversational or standard written Turkish, the third-person "to be" suffix (-dır / -dir) is often dropped in simple descriptive sentences. If you added -dır to make them köklüdür and oradadır, the sentence would sound much more formal, like an encyclopedic fact, rather than an opinion shared in conversation.
Can I place Kaldı ki in the middle or at the end of the second sentence?
No, kaldı ki acts as a sentence-linking conjunction here. It must sit at the very beginning of the new clause it introduces to properly bridge the previous argument to the additional one.
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