Breakdown of İlk yarıda hep kazanırdık.
kazanmak
to earn / to win
hep
always, all the time / all (in 'hep beraber' = all together)
ilk
first, initial
yarı
half (one of two parts); half-time
Questions & Answers about İlk yarıda hep kazanırdık.
How is kazanırdık formed to mean 'used to win'?
The verb root is kazan- (to win). To express 'used to', we add the aorist suffix -ır (showing a regular action), followed by the past tense suffix -dı, and finally the personal ending -k for 'we'. This combination of aorist + past (-ırdı) is the standard way to express habitual past actions.
Why does kazan- take -ır instead of -ar for the aorist?
For verbs ending in a consonant, the aorist suffix depends on the number of syllables. Because kazan- has more than one syllable (ka-zan), it takes a 4-way vowel harmony suffix (-ır, -ir, -ur, or -ür). Since the last vowel is 'a', it becomes -ır. Most single-syllable verbs take -ar or -er.
I know hep means 'always'. Could I use her zaman here instead?
Yes, you could say İlk yarıda her zaman kazanırdık. Both mean 'always', but hep is shorter and extremely common in everyday Turkish for emphasizing a continuous or habitual state, like doing something every single time.
Does yarı just mean 'half' of anything, or is it specific to sports here?
Yarı means 'half' in a general noun sense, but it is also the exact word used for halves of a sports match. Combined with ilk (first) and the locative suffix -da (in/at), ilk yarıda translates perfectly to 'in the first half'.
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