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Usages of bilmek
Türkçe bilmiyorum.
I don't speak Turkish.
Ben biliyorum ki Kamil hayatında hiç sevişmedi.
I know that Kamil (in his life) never made love.
In English when we make sentences with never or ever, it automatically refers to the subject's total experience. Like when we say "John never kissed." It automatically means that John has never touched lips with another person in his entire life.
But in Turkish, when we say "John hiç öpüşmedi.", it sounds as if the sentence did not end yet, as if it would continue with something like "at the party" or "on that boat-trip". So we put "hayatında" (in his/her life) to emphasize this point.
Additionally, depending on the subject, it would conjugate as "hayatımda, hayatında, hayatında, hayatımızda, hayatınızda, hayatlarında".
Kamil seks hakkında hiçbir şey bilmiyor.
Kamil knows nothing about sex.
Yani gelmek istiyorum ama belki gelmem, bilmiyorum.
I mean I want to come, but maybe I won't. I don't know.
Sırrımızı biliyorsa onu öldürmeliyiz.
If s/he knows our secret, we must kill him/her.
Deniz katili biliyorduysa hakim onu suçlu bulacak.
If Deniz knew the killer, the judge will find her guilty.
More from this lesson
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“How does vowel harmony work in Turkish?”
Turkish uses vowel harmony, meaning the vowels in suffixes change to match the last vowel of the word. Turkish vowels are divided into front (e, i, ö, ü) and back (a, ı, o, u) groups. Suffixes will use front or back vowels to harmonize with the root word.
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