Breakdown of Bebek ağladı ağlayacak, hemen emzir!
bebek
baby
ağlamak
to cry
hemen
immediately / right away
emzirmek
to breastfeed
Questions & Answers about Bebek ağladı ağlayacak, hemen emzir!
How does ağladı ağlayacak translate to "about to cry"?
This is the imminent action structure you are learning in this lesson. By placing the 3rd person past tense (ağladı, cried) right next to the 3rd person future tense (ağlayacak, will cry) of the same verb, Turkish creates the meaning that an action is on the absolute verge of happening. It implies the event is so close it is hovering between the past and the future.
Could I use ağlamak üzere here instead?
Yes, Bebek ağlamak üzere also means the baby is about to cry. However, the ağladı ağlayacak pattern is often used in conversational Turkish to express a stronger sense of suspense, inevitability, or extreme immediacy. It feels more urgent than -mak üzere.
What is the root of the verb emzir?
The verb emzirmek (to breastfeed) is a causative form. It comes from the root emmek (to suck or absorb). The causative suffix -zir (a rare variation of the standard -dir causative suffix) changes the meaning to "cause to suck," which translates to breastfeeding. Here it is used in the imperative (command) form, emzir.
Why doesn't the Turkish sentence include a word for "him" or "her" in the second half?
In Turkish, it is very common to drop the direct object pronoun (like onu) if it is completely obvious from the context. Because Bebek is the subject of the first clause, we already know who needs to be breastfed, so adding onu before hemen emzir is unnecessary and would actually sound a bit repetitive.
Learn Bebek ağladı ağlayacak, hemen emzir and more in Turkish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free