"Yediyi yirmi geçiyor."

Translation: It is twenty past seven.

[airelibre]

I wrote simply "Twenty past seven" (eg. someone asks the time and you reply with that). Should it really have been marked wrong?

[bknckn]

It seems to me like it should be accepted, since that is a normal way to state the time in English. The key thing to understand is that Turkish makes a firm distinction between "[It is] twenty past seven" and "[Something is happening at] twenty past seven." They are probably being overly strict to make sure that distinction is understood

[Selcen_Ozturk]

I think we have to, because as you said there is a big difference in Turkish...

[bookrabbit]

It really helps when you explain why you don't accept an otherwise correct answer. Otherwise it is distractingly annoying.

[bknckn]

I agree it is the best solution :)

[airelibre]

Ok, fine. Thank you both.

[Simon427206]

The perfectly correct English should be accepted no matter what.

[Oregon501]

what does the "yi" in yediyi signify. Isn't it "to 7". Why wouldn't it be "twenty to seven"

[timyhac]

yi is an accusative suffix. The rule is accusative for 0-30 mins past hour, dative for 30+ mins past hour.

[Estremo13]

7:20 is the same than twenty past seven

[ArAlessa]

7:20 is not accepted!

[Salih_Dz.]

"Yediyi yirmi geçiyor, and Yediyi yirmi var" are interchangeable?

[MajdALAMI]

1) When talking about minutes that passed the hour, we use the expression:
--> XX (hour - accusative case) YY (minutes) geçiyor
for example: 07:10 07 --> yedi 10 --> on yediyi on geçiyor ("about the seven" ten passed)

-yi is one of the possibilities for the accusative suffix - other options are -yu/ yü/ yı/ yi/ -u/ -ü/ -ı/ -i (this is another part of Turkish grammar you might need to review, if you don't understand it here)

2) Now, if you want to talk about minutes preceding the hour, you use a different expression:
-->XX (hour +1 in dative case) YY (minutes) var
for example: 06:50 06+1 --> 7 (yedi)10 --> on
yediye on var (to seven, there is ten)
-ye is one of the options for the dative case in Turish. Others are -ye, -ya, -e, -a