Learn Hardcore Turkish: Yol boyunca yapılan gözlemler alternatif rotalar bulmamıza yardımcı oldu. - The observations made along the route helped us find alternative paths.

yol means road, and boyunca is a postposition meaning along or throughout. In Turkish, boyunca always follows the noun it modifies. So yol boyunca literally translates to along the road.

Why is yapılan used here instead of a simple past or active form?

yapılan is the passive participle of yapmak (to do/make). It turns the verb into “that was done/made.” Thus yapılan gözlemler means observations that were made. An active form like yapan gözlemler would mean “observations that make/do,” which doesn’t make sense, and a past participle like yapmış gözlemler is not used to describe completed actions in this kind of descriptive clause.

What is the role of -mıza in bulmamıza?

Here’s how bulmamıza breaks down: • bulma = the noun “finding” (verbal noun of bulmak, to find)
• -mızı = 1st person plural possessive, giving us “our finding”
• -a (harmonized as -mıza) = the dative case, because yardımcı olmak (“to be helpful/assist”) takes its beneficiary in the dative.
So bulmamıza yardımcı oldu literally means “it became helpful to our finding,” i.e. “it helped us find.”

Why is rotalar not marked with the accusative suffix -ı (as rotaları)?