Yönetmelik okunmalı.

The regulation must be read.

Breakdown of Yönetmelik okunmalı.

• yönetmelik: the regulation
• okunmak: to be read
• -malı: must

Questions & Answers about Yönetmelik okunmalı.

What morphemes make up okunmalı, and what does each one do?

okunmalı breaks down into three parts:

• oku‑ (verb root “to read”)
• ‑n (passive voice marker, turns “read” into “be read”)
• ‑malı (necessity/obligation suffix, “must/should”)

Putting them together: oku‑n‑malı = “must be read.”

Why is Yönetmelik in the nominative case and not marked with the accusative suffix ‑i?

In an active sentence you’d say Yönetmeliği okuyorum (“I am reading the regulation”), and Yönetmeliği takes ‑i as a direct object. But in the passive, the original object becomes the grammatical subject. Subjects in Turkish appear in the nominative case, so we use Yönetmelik without ‑i.

Why is there no explicit subject (like “someone” or “it”) in Yönetmelik okunmalı?

This is an impersonal construction focusing on the action and necessity. English might say “One must read the regulation,” but Turkish omits “one.” The sentence simply states what needs to happen without naming who does it—common in notices or instructions.

How would you express “I should read the regulation” instead of an impersonal “it must be read”?

You switch to an active, personal form and add your personal ending:
• Yönetmeliği okumalıyım.
Here ‑malı still shows obligation, and ‑yım signals “I.”

How can the same idea be phrased using gerekmek (“to need”)?

Turkish often uses a nominalized form + gerekiyor:
• Yönetmeliğin okunması gerekiyor.
Breakdown:

• Yönetmeliğin (genitive of “regulation”)
• okunması (noun form “the reading of …”)
• gerekiyor (“is necessary”)

What if I want to say “The regulation should have been read” (past obligation)?

Attach the past-tense necessity marker ‑ydı to okunmalı:
• Yönetmelik okunmalıydı.
Literally “It needed to be read.”

Why is the suffix written ‑malı here and not ‑meli?

Turkish vowel harmony dictates suffix vowels:

• If the last vowel in the stem is a back vowel (a, ı, o, u), use ‑malı.
• If it’s a front vowel (e, i, ö, ü), use ‑meli.

In oku‑, the vowel u is back, so we use ‑malı.