Breakdown of Beni neden karalıyorsun ki, bu büyük bir haksızlık!
bu
this
bir
a / an
büyük
big
ben
I
neden
why
ki
but ... (trailing particle of exasperation)
karalamak
to smear / to defame
haksızlık
injustice / unfairness
Questions & Answers about Beni neden karalıyorsun ki, bu büyük bir haksızlık!
What exactly does ki add to the end of the first clause here?
In this sentence, the trailing ki emphasizes exasperation and disbelief. While Beni neden karalıyorsun? simply asks "Why are you smearing me?", adding ki turns it into something more like "Why on earth are you smearing me?" or "Why are you smearing me anyway?". It highlights that the speaker finds the action completely unjustified.
How is the verb karalıyorsun formed? I know kara means black.
It comes from the adjective kara (black). Adding the suffix -la makes it the verb karalamak, which literally means "to blacken" but is heavily used figuratively to mean "to smear", "to defame", or "to slander". When the present continuous suffix -ıyor is added, the final a in karala- narrows to ı due to vowel reduction, giving us karalıyor (and then -sun for "you").
Why is the word order büyük bir haksızlık instead of bir büyük haksızlık?
As a quick refresher, when an adjective modifies a noun that also uses the indefinite article bir, the adjective almost always comes before bir in Turkish. The standard structure is [Adjective] + bir + [Noun], giving us büyük bir haksızlık (a huge injustice) rather than the exact English word order.
Can you break down the suffixes in the word haksızlık?
It starts with the root hak, an Arabic loanword meaning "right" or "justice". Adding the "without" suffix -sız creates the adjective haksız (unjust, wrong, or unfair). Finally, adding the abstract noun suffix -lık turns it into haksızlık (injustice or an unfair act).
Learn Beni neden karalıyorsun ki, bu büyük bir haksızlık 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