Learn Hardcore Turkish: Ütüsüz gömlekle toplantıya gitmek zor. - Going to the meeting with an un-ironed shirt is difficult.

The suffix -siz means “without” (similar to English “-less”). Turkish vowel harmony gives it four variants: -sız, ‑siz, ‑suz, ‑süz. Since ütü ends in ü (a front-rounded vowel), the suffix harmonizes to -süz, yielding ütüsüz = “without ironing” or “un-ironed.”

Why is gömlekle written as one word? What does -le do here?

Turkish uses the suffix −le/-la on nouns to express instrumental or comitative meaning (“with”). When attached, it fuses:

gömlek + ‑le = gömlekle (“with a shirt”).
You could also say gömlek ile, but the suffix form (gömlekle) is more common in everyday speech. The meaning is the same; ile alone sounds slightly more formal.

What case is toplantıya, and why is it used in this sentence?

Toplantıya is toplantı (“meeting”) + the dative case suffix -ya (after ı it becomes ya). It marks the destination of gitmek:

(to) the meeting → toplantıya

Why is gitmek in the infinitive form? How does that work grammatically?

In Turkish, the infinitive ending -mak/-mek turns a verb into a noun-like concept. Here gitmek = “going.” The structure
Ütüsüz gömlekle toplantıya gitmek zor.
literally means
“Going to the meeting with an un-ironed shirt is hard.”
So gitmek serves as the subject of the adjective zor.

What role does zor play at the end of the sentence?

Zor is an adjective meaning “difficult/hard.” It functions as the predicate for the nominalized action gitmek. You can think of it as a reduced form of gitmek zor olmak, but in colloquial Turkish you usually drop olmak and say simply gitmek zor.

Can I change the word order, for example say Toplantıya ütüsüz gömlekle gitmek zor or Zor gitmek toplantıya gömlekle?

Turkish is relatively flexible, but there’s a natural flow:

Circumstantials (instrumental gömlekle, dative toplantıya)
Infinitive gitmek
Predicate zor

Swapping the first two (Toplantıya ütüsüz gömlekle gitmek zor) is perfectly fine. However, moving gitmek or zor before their complements (Zor gitmek toplantıya gömlekle) sounds awkward and is not standard.

How do you pronounce the vowels ü and ö in ütüsüz gömlekle? They don’t exist in English.

ü: like the French u in tu. Lips rounded, tongue high and front.
- ö: like the German ö in schön. Lips rounded, tongue mid and front.
  Practice syllable by syllable: ü-tü-süz göm-lek-le.

Can I insert an indefinite article bir here, as in ütüsüz bir gömlekle?

Yes. Turkish has bir = “a/an.”

ütüsüz bir gömlekle toplantıya gitmek zor
means “It’s hard to go to the meeting with an un-ironed shirt.”
However, bir is often optional—ütüsüz gömlekle also sounds perfectly natural when the shirt is nonspecific.