Breakdown of Zaten evdeyim, şekerleme yapıyorum ve gevşiyorum.
ev
house
ve
and
yapmak
to do / to make
zaten
anyway, in any case
şekerleme
nap
gevşemek
to unwind / to relax (loosen up)
Questions & Answers about Zaten evdeyim, şekerleme yapıyorum ve gevşiyorum.
How does zaten function in this sentence compared to just saying "already"?
While zaten can translate to "already", here it acts as a discourse marker justifying a situation, meaning "anyway" or "as a matter of fact." It sets up an inherent state (evdeyim) that naturally leads to the following actions: "I'm at home anyway, so I'm napping and relaxing."
Doesn't şekerleme mean "candy" or "sweets"? Why is it used for sleeping here?
It does! However, şekerleme yapmak is a very common Turkish idiom that means "to take a nap" or "to snooze." You can think of a short daytime sleep as a little "sweet" treat.
The dictionary form of "to relax" is gevşemek. Why is the vowel different in gevşiyorum?
This is due to a phonological rule called vowel narrowing. When you add the present continuous suffix -yor to a verb ending in a wide vowel (-a or -e), that vowel narrows. Here, the -e in gevşe- narrows to an -i to harmonize with the suffix, becoming gevşiyor.
Since "I" is the subject for the whole sentence, could we drop the -m / -um personal suffixes on the first two parts and only put it at the very end?
No, that wouldn't sound natural here. While you can sometimes group verbs sharing a tense and subject in Turkish, here you have a noun-based state (evdeyim) mixed with continuous action verbs (yapıyorum, gevşiyorum). Because the predicate types are different, you need the personal suffix on each one.
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