Breakdown of Henüz bulantı hissetmiyordu, yemekten zehirlenmiş olabilir.
olmak
to be
hissetmek
to feel
henüz
yet / still
yemek
food, meal
bulantı
nausea
zehirlenmek
to get food poisoning / to get poisoned
Questions & Answers about Henüz bulantı hissetmiyordu, yemekten zehirlenmiş olabilir.
How does the grammar in zehirlenmiş olabilir create the meaning 'might have gotten'?
This is the epistemic past possibility structure. It combines the reported past suffix -miş with olabilir (it can be / it is possible). Together, -miş olabilir expresses that it is possible that something happened. You use -miş rather than -di here because this is a deduction or a guess about the past, not a known, witnessed fact.
Why is the ablative case -ten used in yemekten here?
The ablative case (-den/-dan/-ten/-tan) is frequently used in Turkish to indicate the cause or source of an event. In this sentence, yemekten literally means 'from the food' or 'from eating', pointing to the meal as the source of the poisoning.
What does the -n do in the middle of the verb zehirlenmiş?
It makes the verb passive or reflexive. The root noun zehir means poison, and zehirlemek means to poison someone. Adding the -n creates zehirlenmek, meaning to be poisoned or to get food poisoning yourself.
Why does the sentence use the past continuous hissetmiyordu instead of the simple past hissetmedi?
Hissetmiyordu (was not feeling) pairs perfectly with henüz (yet) to describe an ongoing state at a specific point in the past. Hissetmedi (did not feel) would imply a single, completed past action, which clashes with the concept of an ongoing 'not yet'.
Learn Henüz bulantı hissetmiyordu, yemekten zehirlenmiş olabilir and more in Turkish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free