Breakdown of İkiz kardeşlerim var ama mizaçları tamamen zıt.
var
there is / existent
kardeş
sibling
ama
but
tamamen
completely / fully
ikiz
twin
mizaç
temperament
zıt
opposite / contrasting
Questions & Answers about İkiz kardeşlerim var ama mizaçları tamamen zıt.
This lesson is about the contrastive topic marker ise. How can we use it here instead of ama?
You can remove ama (but) and add ise after the topic of the second clause: İkiz kardeşlerim var, mizaçları ise tamamen zıt. You can also attach it as a suffix: mizaçlarıysa. This emphasizes the contrast, translating roughly to 'I have twin siblings; as for their temperaments, they are completely opposite.'
Why use İkiz kardeşlerim var instead of just İkizlerim var?
İkizlerim var usually implies that you are the parent of twins ('I have twins'). If you want to say you have siblings who are twins, or that you are part of a set of twins, you must clarify it with kardeş (sibling), resulting in İkiz kardeşlerim var.
The root word for temperament is mizaç. Why doesn't the ç change to c here?
Consonant mutation (where ç becomes c) generally happens when a suffix starting with a vowel is added. Here, the plural possessive suffix -ları starts with a consonant, so mizaç remains unchanged. If you were talking about one sibling's temperament using the singular possessive -ı, the word would mutate to mizacı.
Is there a verb missing at the end of tamamen zıt?
Yes, there is an implied -tır suffix (the third-person 'to be' copula). Saying tamamen zıttır is completely correct, but in everyday spoken and written Turkish, this suffix is frequently dropped from adjectives and nouns at the end of a sentence.
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