Learn Hardcore Turkish: Ofiste çalışırken bana gönderdiğin e-posta, önemli bir ipucu içeriyordu. - While working in the office, the email you sent me contained an important hint.

Ofiste is made up of ofis (a borrowing from English, meaning "office") combined with the locative suffix -te, which indicates location. Together, ofiste means "in the office."

What does the suffix -ken in çalışırken indicate?

The suffix -ken functions as a temporal marker meaning "while" or "during." When added to the verb stem çalış- (from çalışmak, meaning "to work"), it forms çalışırken, which translates as "while working." This construction shows that one action occurred concurrently with another.

How is the relative clause bana gönderdiğin e-posta structured, and what does it mean?

In this phrase, gönderdiğin is a relative clause derived from the verb göndermek ("to send"). It uses the past tense marker -di along with the relative suffix -ğin, which refers to the second person ("you"). The word bana means "to me," and e-posta means "email." Thus, the entire phrase translates to "the email that you sent me." Note that in Turkish, relative clauses like gönderdiğin are placed before the noun they modify.

Why is the verb içeriyordu in the past continuous form, and how does it differ from the simple past?