Breakdown of Ha dünkü toplantı ha yarınki, hepsi önemsiz.
yarın
tomorrow
toplantı
meeting
dün
yesterday
hepsi
all of them
ha ... ha ...
whether ... or ... (makes no difference) / it makes no difference if
önemsiz
unimportant / trivial
Questions & Answers about Ha dünkü toplantı ha yarınki, hepsi önemsiz.
How does the ha ... ha ... structure work in this sentence?
The ha ... ha ... conjunction expresses indifference between two choices, meaning it makes no difference if it is X or Y. In this sentence, the speaker is saying it does not matter whether it is yesterday's meeting or tomorrow's; the result is exactly the same.
Why does dün take the suffix -kü while yarın takes -ki?
The suffix -ki creates adjectives or pronouns from time words, meaning the one at or from a certain time. It usually ignores vowel harmony and always stays -ki, as in yarınki (tomorrow's). However, dün (yesterday) and gün (day) are rare exceptions where the suffix changes to match the rounded vowel, becoming dünkü and günkü.
In the second half of the phrase, why is it just yarınki instead of yarınki toplantı?
The suffix -ki can act as a pronoun, standing in for a noun that has already been mentioned. Just like in English where we say tomorrow's instead of tomorrow's meeting, Turkish drops the second toplantı because yarınki already fully means the one belonging to tomorrow.
Could I use this ha ... ha ... structure with verbs too, or is it only for nouns?
You can absolutely use it with verbs! For example, you could say ha geldin ha gelmedin (whether you came or didn't come). It works the exact same way to show that either action leads to the same indifferent outcome.
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