Word
Hemşire dirseğini temizlemesini istedi.
Meaning
The nurse asked her to clean her elbow.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Hemşire dirseğini temizlemesini istedi.
hemşire
nurse
temizlemek
to clean
istemek
to want / to require / to call for
dirsek
elbow
Questions & Answers about Hemşire dirseğini temizlemesini istedi.
Why does temizlemesini have so many suffixes at the end?
Let's break it down! temizle- is the verb root (to clean). -me makes it a noun (the act of cleaning). -si is the possessive suffix meaning his/her (her cleaning). -n- is a buffer letter. Finally, the -i is the accusative case suffix, required because her cleaning is the direct object of istedi (she wanted what?).
How does istedi mean "asked" here instead of "wanted"?
In Turkish, asking someone to do something is phrased as "wanting their doing of it." So, wanting her to clean (temizlemesini istedi) translates naturally as "asked her to clean." If the nurse wanted to clean it herself, you would just use the full infinitive -mek and say temizlemek istedi.
Why is the accusative case used twice in this sentence (dirseğini and temizlemesini)?
Each action word here can take its own object. The main verb istedi (wanted/asked) takes temizlemesini as its object. But the action of cleaning also needs an object: what is she cleaning? Her elbow (dirseğini). Since both are direct objects of their respective actions, both get the accusative suffix.
Why did the word for elbow change from dirsek to dirseği?