Breakdown of İnsan yalnız olduğu zaman neden hep karanlığa meyleder?
yalnız
alone
insan
person
zaman
time
olmak
to be
neden
why
karanlık
dark
hep
always, all the time / all (in 'hep beraber' = all together)
meyletmek
to incline / to lean towards
Questions & Answers about İnsan yalnız olduğu zaman neden hep karanlığa meyleder?
Why is meyleder written as one word instead of two?
The verb comes from the noun meyil (inclination) and the auxiliary verb etmek (to do/make). When combined, the second vowel in meyil drops out (vowel elision), becoming meyl-. According to Turkish spelling rules, when an auxiliary verb compound undergoes a sound change like this vowel elision, it must be written as a single combined word: meyletmek.
What tense is meyleder in, and why does the "t" from etmek change to a "d"?
It is in the aorist (simple present) tense, indicated by the -er ending. When you add a vowel-initial suffix like -er to etmek, the t softens to a d (consonant mutation). So, meyletmek becomes meyleder.
Why does the word for darkness end in a "ğ" here in karanlığa?
The root noun is karanlık (darkness). Because the verb meyletmek takes the dative case (inclining towards something), we must add the dative suffix -a. Adding this vowel causes the final k in karanlık to mutate into a soft ğ (karanlığa) to make pronunciation smoother.
How does olduğu zaman translate to "when alone" if there's no pronoun like "they" or "he"?
The phrase literally means "at the time of its being". The word olduğu is built from olmak (to be) + the participle -duk + the third-person possessive -u. It agrees with the general third-person subject insan (a person). Together with zaman (time) and yalnız (alone), it forms the relative time clause "when a person is alone".
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