Word
Bu yüzden adama bir tokat atasım geldi.
Meaning
That's why I got an urge to slap the man.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Bu yüzden adama bir tokat atasım geldi.
bir
a / an
adam
man
gelmek
to come
bu yüzden
that's why / therefore
Questions & Answers about Bu yüzden adama bir tokat atasım geldi.
How is the feeling of an "urge" formed in the word atasım?
This uses the internal urge structure: Verb stem + -(y)ası + possessive suffix. Here, we take the verb stem at- (to throw/slap), add the inclination suffix -ası, and then the first-person possessive -m (my). Literally, it forms the noun "my inclination to slap". When paired with geldi (came), it translates to "I got an urge to slap".
Why does adam take the dative case (adama) instead of the accusative (adamı)?
In English, you "slap someone" using a direct object. However, in Turkish, the standard phrase is birine tokat atmak, which literally translates to "throwing a slap to someone." Because the action is directed at or to the man, adam requires the dative case ending -a.
Why is the verb stem at- used here when the translation says "slap"?
The verb atmak normally means "to throw," but Turkish uses it in several compound verbs for physical actions. The specific phrase for "to slap" is tokat atmak (literally "to throw a slap"). Therefore, the urge structure must attach to the verb at- rather than tokat.
In the phrase atasım geldi, why doesn't geldi have a first-person ending like geldim?