Breakdown of Memlekete dönmeyeli o kadar zaman geçti ki kendimi yabancı hissediyorum.
o
that / he / she / it
zaman
time
dönmek
to return
hissetmek
to feel
Questions & Answers about Memlekete dönmeyeli o kadar zaman geçti ki kendimi yabancı hissediyorum.
Why is there a negative suffix in dönmeyeli if the English translation says "since I last returned"?
The suffix -(y)AlI attached to a negative verb stem (dön-me-) literally means "since not doing". So, dönmeyeli literally means "since I haven't returned". In English, the most natural way to express this exact concept of elapsed time is to say "since I last returned".
How do we know who is doing the returning if dönmeyeli doesn't have a personal ending?
Converbs formed with -(y)AlI do not take personal endings (like -m or -im). You have to deduce the subject from the context or the main verb of the sentence. Because the main verb here is hissediyorum (I feel), we naturally understand that the person who hasn't returned is also "I".
How does the word ki function in the middle of this sentence?
It acts as a conjunction to create a "so... that..." structure. The phrase o kadar zaman geçti means "that much time passed," and adding ki directly after it links it to the result: "that [consequently] I feel like a stranger."
Why is the reflexive pronoun kendimi in the accusative case?