Breakdown of Toplantı notlarını akılda tutmak gerekir.
gerekmek
to be necessary
toplantı
the meeting
not
the note
akılda tutmak
to keep in mind
Questions & Answers about Toplantı notlarını akılda tutmak gerekir.
Why is akılda in the locative case (with -da)?
akılda is the locative form of akıl (“mind”). In Turkish, idiomatic memory expressions like akılda kalmak (“to stay in the mind”) or akılda tutmak (“to keep in the mind”) use the locative to signal “in the mind.” This isn’t a physical place but a figurative location—your memory.
What does akılda tutmak mean, and how is it different from hatırlamak?
Akılda tutmak literally means “to keep in mind,” emphasising the active effort of holding information in memory. Hatırlamak simply means “to remember” or “to recall” something already stored. Use akılda tutmak when you want to stress the action of deliberately storing information for later.
Why is notlarını marked with the accusative suffix -ı? The subject is general—shouldn’t the object stay unmarked?
In Turkish, definite or specific direct objects take the accusative suffix. Here notlarını refers to the meeting notes known from context, so we add -ı (after notlar) to mark it as definite. Even though the implied subject “one” or “you” is indefinite, the object remains definite and thus gets -ı.
What is the function of gerekir here, and why is the sentence impersonal?