Breakdown of Dün akşam birdenbire hüngür hüngür ağlayasım geldi.
gelmek
to come
ağlamak
to cry
akşam
evening
dün
yesterday
birdenbire
suddenly
hüngür hüngür
sobbing uncontrollably
Questions & Answers about Dün akşam birdenbire hüngür hüngür ağlayasım geldi.
How exactly does ağlayasım geldi form the meaning "I felt an urge to cry"?
This is the structure for expressing a spontaneous urge. We start with the verb root ağla- (to cry). Since it ends in a vowel, we add the buffer -y-, followed by the inclination suffix -ası. Next, we add the 1st-person singular possessive -m to make ağlayasım (my urge to cry). Finally, we add geldi (came). Literally, it translates to "my urge to cry came."
What kind of expression is hüngür hüngür?
It is an onomatopoeic double word (a reduplication imitating a sound) used specifically with the verb ağlamak. While ağlamak simply means to cry, adding hüngür hüngür emphasizes crying loudly, heavily, or sobbing uncontrollably.
The lesson says we can use var instead of gelmek. Could I say ağlayasım vardı here?
You could, but geldi is a much better choice here because of the word birdenbire (suddenly). The verb geldi (came) describes a dynamic action indicating the sudden arrival of the urge. Using vardı (existed / I had) describes a steady state, which clashes slightly with the idea of it happening suddenly.
Why is the tense marker only on geldi? Could I attach a past tense suffix to the urge itself?
No, in this structure, the word carrying the -(y)AsI suffix acts like a noun phrase (meaning "my urge to cry") and never takes tense markers. The time of the event is always carried by the helper word at the end. Since this happened dün akşam (yesterday evening), the helper verb gelmek takes the simple past tense marker to become geldi.
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