Tuvalete gitmeden önce kapıyı kapatmalısın.

to go

Breakdown of Tuvalete gitmeden önce kapıyı kapatmalısın.

• kapı: the door
• önce: before
• -ya: to

Questions & Answers about Tuvalete gitmeden önce kapıyı kapatmalısın.

What case is tuvalete and why is it used here?

Tuvalet (“toilet”) takes the dative case suffix -e to indicate movement to somewhere. So tuvalete means “to the toilet.” If you used tuvalette, that would be the locative case (“in the toilet”), and tuvaleti would be the accusative (“the toilet” as a direct object).

What does gitmeden mean, and why is it -meden instead of -madan?

The suffix -meden is the negative gerund (“without doing…”). Combined with önce, it forms a temporal clause: gitmeden önce = “before going.” Because the verb root git- has the front vowel i, vowel harmony requires the front form -meden (rather than -madan).

Why is önce placed after gitmeden? Could I say önce gitmeden?

The fixed pattern for “before doing X” is [verb-meden] önce. Although you might see önce gitmeden in very poetic or emphatic contexts, standard Turkish always attaches önce after the -meden form.

Why is kapıyı in the accusative case?