Breakdown of Bizi kandırdıkları aşikâr.
biz
we
kandırmak
to deceive / to fool
aşikâr
obvious / clear (manifest, evident)
Questions & Answers about Bizi kandırdıkları aşikâr.
Why does kandırdıkları have no case marker at the very end?
Because the entire clause bizi kandırdıkları (that they deceived us) acts as the subject of the sentence. Just like a regular noun, a factive clause acting as a subject stays in the nominative case, meaning it takes no extra case endings after the possessive suffix.
How do we know it was 'they' who did the deceiving if there is no 'they' in the sentence?
The clue is in the suffix -ları at the end of kandırdıkları. It breaks down as the verb kandır- + the factive suffix -dık + the third-person plural possessive -ları (their). You could write the full sentence as Onların bizi kandırdıkları aşikâr, but the pronoun onların is usually dropped since the suffix already tells us who did it.
Why is the first word bizi (accusative) and not bizim (genitive)?
Because we are the object of the deceiving, not the subject. The verb kandırmak (to deceive) takes a direct object in the accusative case. Since 'they deceived us' translates to bizi kandırdılar, that accusative case remains exactly the same when you turn it into the noun clause bizi kandırdıkları.
Is aşikâr an everyday word, or is it formal?
It is a bit formal and literary, though widely understood. In casual, everyday conversation, you are much more likely to hear belli or açık used in the exact same way, as in Bizi kandırdıkları belli.
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