The Infinitive is the name of a verb, therefore per se it is a noun. This is characterized in English by the word - to - ie to walk, to swim.
The Turkish Infinitive has four forms of the infinitive, all of which can be used as nouns and can therefore take case endings and personal pronouns when required. The Standard Infinitive ending in -mek or -mak
If we say in English - she is starting to write - then the Infinitive yazmak - to write - is the object of the verb - she is starting ... - and consequently must be suffixed to show its relationship to the verb.
As the verb başlamak - to start, begin - signifies movement of some sort it governs the Dative Case in Turkish -a or -e.
To effect the addition of the dative suffix to yazmak the final -k of -mek or -mak is dropped and the resulting verbal noun - yazma - is treated as a normal object in the Dative by the addition of the suffix -ya standard dative buffer letter -y- :
yazmak - to write - becomes yazmaya başladı - she started to (to) write
It should be noted that we also use The Present Continuous Participle in -ing - (another noun) while translating in English so the above is often rendered in the following manner: yazmak - to write - becomes yazmaya başladı - she started writing |