Learn Hardcore Turkish: Piknik yaparken yakınlardaki ahşap çit gölge sağlar. - The wooden fence nearby provides shade when having a picnic.

yaparken comes from the verb yapmak (“to do/make”) plus the suffix -arken, which expresses “while doing something.” You take the root yap- (drop the -mak infinitive ending) and add -arken. In piknik yaparken, it literally means “while (we/you/one) picnic” or more naturally “while picnicking.”

What exactly does the suffix -ken do in Turkish?

The suffix -ken (in its allomorphs -arken, -irken, -urken, -ırken) turns a verb into a temporal clause meaning “when/while [verb]-ing.”
• You attach it to the verb stem (drop the infinitive -mak/-mek).
• It indicates two actions happening at the same time: e.g. okurken müzik dinlerim = “I listen to music while I read.”

Why is there no subject pronoun before yaparken or sağlar?

Turkish is a pro-drop language, so subject pronouns (I, you, he/she) are often omitted when they’re clear from context or from the verb ending.
• In piknik yaparken, the subject is generic or understood (“we/one picnics”).
• In yakınlardaki ahşap çit gölge sağlar, ahşap çit is the explicit subject of sağlar (“the wooden fence provides”).

What does yakınlardaki mean, and how do you build it?

yakınlardaki means “the one(s) in the nearby area” or simply “nearby.” Here’s the breakdown:

yakın = “near”
yakınlar = plural of “near” → “near ones/places”
yakınlarda = locative case → “in the near places”
yakınlardaki = add -ki → “the one(s) that is/are in the near places” , used as an adjective before a noun (here: ahşap çit).

What is the function of the suffix -ki in yakınlardaki?

The suffix -ki (attached after a case ending like -de/-da) forms a relative adjective meaning “that which is in/on/at [noun].”
Example:
• evde = “at home” → evdeki = “the one at home”
• arabadaki = “(the thing) in the car”
So yakınlardaki = “the one(s) in the nearby area.”

Why is ahşap placed before çit, and what does it mean?

In Turkish, adjectives precede nouns. ahşap means “wooden” (from ağaç, “tree/wood”). So ahşap çit = “wooden fence.” If you reversed it to çit ahşap, it would sound ungrammatical in Turkish.

Why doesn’t gölge take the accusative suffix -i (i.e. gölgeyi sağlar)?

In Turkish, the -i suffix on direct objects marks definiteness or specificity. Here, the sentence makes a general statement (“provides shade” in general), so gölge remains indefinite and does not take -i.
• If you wanted to say “it provides the (specific) shade,” you could say gölgeyi sağlar.

Could you use yakındaki instead of yakınlardaki, and what’s the difference?

Yes. yakındaki comes from yakında (“at/nearby”) + -ki, meaning “the one that is nearby” (singular).
• yakınlardaki often implies plural or a general nearby area (“the nearby ones/that are nearby”).
• If you know there’s only one fence and want to say “the nearby wooden fence,” you can say yakındaki ahşap çit.

Could you say piknik ederken instead of piknik yaparken, and is there any nuance?

Yes. piknik etmek (“to picnic”) is a verb phrase, so piknik ederken also means “while picnicking.”
• piknik yapmak is more colloquial, literally “to make/do a picnic.”
• piknik etmek is slightly more formal but perfectly correct.