# Saatler bir saat ileri alınmadan önce...



## modus.irrealis

Hi,

I'm having some trouble figuring out what a complicated (for me) sentence means in a story I'm trying to read. The full sentence is:

Saatler bir saat ileri alınmadan önce, yedi ile sekiz aralarında, ortalığın alacakaranlıktan siyaha döndüğü akşamların birinde, Sultan Mahmut Türbesi'nin önünden geçiyorlardı.

as what I understand is:

Before the clocks were turned forward one hour, between seven and eight o'clock, on one of the evenings where the surroundings turn to black during twilight, they were passing in front of the Sultan Mahmut Tomb.

Is that reasonably close?


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## ~ceLine~

Yes, It is.

& Really bravo  .. because it isn't an easy sentence ..!


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## Chazzwozzer

> Before the clocks were turned forward one hour, [...]


I'm not sure if it's idiomatic in English, but how does _"before the clocks were advanced an hour, [...]" _sound?


> [...] they were passing in front of the Sultan Mahmut Tomb.


Hmm...

I suggest _shrine_ instead, since _turbe _may not be very well-known in English. Well, I guess _tomb _is acceptable, too.


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## modus.irrealis

Thanks to both of you.



Chazzwozzer said:


> I'm not sure if it's idiomatic in English, but how does _"before the clocks were advanced an hour, [...]" _sound?


I can only speak for what it sounds like to me, but I wouldn't use "advance" when talking about clocks in this context -- then again this seems to me to be one of those phrases that sounds awkward in the passive voice.


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## Chazzwozzer

modus.irrealis said:


> I can only speak for what it sounds like to me, but I wouldn't use "advance" when talking about clocks in this context -- then again this seems to me to be one of those phrases that sounds awkward in the passive voice.


I just realized that I forgot to point it out: _"saatlerin bir saat ileri alınması"_ and _"saatleri bir saat ileri almak"_ are fixed expressions in the sense of *daylight saving time* in Turkish. Does it make any difference now?


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## modus.irrealis

I was thinking that it referred to daylight saving time (which did strike me as an odd thing to mention in a story ), but I was just saying that around here you normally say "turn clocks forward" or maybe "set" instead of "turn" because you physically don't turn most clocks anymore. I guess "advance" is possible -- it's just something I haven't heard. It might be because it doesn't have an obvious opposite -- "turn forward one hour" has "turn back one hour" and so on, but I can't think of a verb to match "advance."


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## Chazzwozzer

modus.irrealis said:


> I was thinking that it referred to daylight saving time (which did strike me as an odd thing to mention in a story )


Well, I can imagine that! 

Some small notes that might be helpful:
*
"saati bir saat ileri almadan önce" *- _personal_
*"saatler bir saat ileri alınmadan önce"* - _DST_
*"saatleri bir saat iler almadan önce"* - _DST
_*"saat bir saat ileri alınmadan önce" - *_personal or DST_


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