Kazmayla derin bir kuyu kazarken kuru ot ve çuvala ihtiyaç duyduk.

Kazmayla means with a pickaxe or using a pickaxe.

It is made from:

• kazma = pickaxe
• -(y)la / -(y)le = with

Because kazma ends in a vowel, Turkish inserts a buffer y:

• kazma + yla → kazmayla

This is also basically the shortened form of kazma ile.

Yes. They are related to the same root idea: digging.

• kazmak = to dig
• kazarken = while digging
• kazma = pickaxe, a tool used for digging

So the sentence uses both the tool noun and the verb built from the same root.

A learner may also notice that kazma can sometimes mean don’t dig! as a negative command, but that is not what it means here. In this sentence, it is clearly the noun pickaxe.

In Turkish, when a noun has an adjective plus bir, the usual order is:

• adjective + bir + noun

So:

• derin bir kuyu = a deep well
• büyük bir ev = a big house
• uzun bir yol = a long road

This is different from English, where a comes first.

Kazarken means while digging or sometimes when digging, depending on context.

It comes from the verb kazmak and the suffix -ken, which creates a meaning like while doing X.

So:

• kazarken = while digging

In practice, learners often just memorize this pattern:

• yaparken = while doing/making
• gelirken = while coming
• kazarken = while digging

It links one action to another:

• Kazarken ... ihtiyaç duyduk.
• While digging, we needed ...

Because Turkish usually includes the subject inside the verb ending.

Here:

• duyduk = we felt / we needed

The -k ending shows we.

So Turkish often leaves out the pronoun biz unless it is needed for emphasis or contrast.

Because ihtiyaç duymak is a fixed expression in Turkish.

• ihtiyaç = need
• duymak often means to hear, but it can also mean to feel or to experience

So literally, it is something like to feel need, but in normal English we simply translate it as to need.

It is best to learn it as a chunk:

• X-e ihtiyaç duymak = to need X

Because ihtiyaç duymak takes the dative case.

So the noun after it usually appears with -(y)e / -a:

• çuval = sack
• çuvala = to/for a sack

In English, we would not normally say to a sack after need, so the natural translation is just a sack. But Turkish grammar requires that case here.

This is a very common Turkish pattern with coordinated nouns.

When two nouns are joined by ve (and), the case ending is often placed only on the last noun, and it is understood to apply to the whole phrase.

So:

• kuru ot ve çuvala ihtiyaç duyduk

means:

• we needed dry grass and a sack

The dative idea applies to both items, even though only çuval visibly carries the ending.

A more explicit version with both marked can also be possible in some contexts, but marking only the last item is very normal.

Because Turkish often uses the singular form for indefinite or general reference.

• kuru ot can function like a mass noun, similar to dry grass or hay
• çuval means a sack in a general indefinite sense

Turkish does not automatically use the plural where English might. Plural marking is added when the speaker wants to emphasize that something is definitely more than one.

Yes.

Both are correct:

• kazma ile
• kazmayla

They both mean with a pickaxe.

The shorter attached form -yla / -yle is extremely common in everyday Turkish.

Because the sentence describes a completed situation in the past.

• duyduk contains -du, the simple past marker
• the full form means we needed or literally we felt a need

The sentence is telling us about what happened during the act of digging, so the past tense fits naturally:

• While digging a deep well with a pickaxe, we needed dry grass and a sack.