Questions & Answers about Sokakta çılgınca koşan koşana.
How do the words koşan koşana translate to 'people are running everywhere'?
This uses the pattern you are currently learning for chaotic abundance: a subject participle (koşan, 'the one who runs') followed by the same participle in the dative case (koşana, 'to the one who runs'). Literally, it means 'the one running is going toward the one running.' Turkish uses this double-participle structure to vividly describe a chaotic scene with a massive amount of people doing the exact same action.
There is no main verb or tense suffix at the end of the sentence. Is this a complete sentence?
Yes! The phrase koşan koşana acts as the main predicate of the sentence. While you could technically add a past tense copula if it happened in the past (koşan koşanaydı for 'people were running everywhere'), in the present tense, this idiomatic structure stands completely on its own without needing an extra verb like 'are' or var.
How is the word çılgınca formed?
The English translation says 'people', but there is no plural suffix (-lar) in koşan koşana. Why is that?
The -An -(y)A pattern inherently describes a crowd or a chaotic multiple-person situation simply by its literal meaning ('one person doing X to another person doing X'). Because this plural, chaotic abundance is built right into the idiom itself, you do not need to add the plural suffix -lar to the participles.
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