Breakdown of Lütfen ev adresini yazmayı unutma.
yazmak
to write
unutmak
to forget
lütfen
please
ev adresi
the home address
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Questions & Answers about Lütfen ev adresini yazmayı unutma.
Why is lütfen used at the beginning of the sentence?
lütfen means “please.” It’s a polite request marker. In Turkish you can place lütfen at the beginning or end of a sentence. Here it opens the request: “Please don’t forget...”
Why is the phrase ev adresini marked with -i at the end?
In Turkish, a definite direct object is marked by the accusative suffix -ı/-i/-u/-ü, chosen by vowel harmony. Since ev adresi (“home address”) is specific (the speaker expects a particular address), it becomes ev adresi + i = ev adresini. Also, the suffix always attaches to the last word of the noun phrase.
Why is yazmayı in this form instead of simply yazmak?
To say “don’t forget to write,” Turkish doesn’t use two verbs in a row. Instead, you nominalize the verb you don’t want to forget—yazmak (“to write”) → yazma (“the act of writing”)—and then treat that noun as the object of unutma. After nominalization with -mak/-mek, you’ll see the form yazma.
Why does yazma take the suffix -yı (becoming yazmayı)?
Once you have the noun yazma, it’s the object of unutmak, so it needs the accusative. Because yazma ends in a vowel, Turkish inserts a buffer y before the suffix: yazma + yı = yazmayı. Vowel harmony picks ı (back unrounded) to match the a in yazma.
How is the negative imperative unutma formed?
The verb is unutmak (“to forget”). For a positive command you’d say unut! (“forget!”). To tell someone not to forget, you add the negative suffix -ma/-me to the stem:
unut + ma = unutma (“don’t forget!”)
This is the second-person singular informal form.
What’s the difference between unutma and unutmayın?
-ma is the informal singular negative imperative ending.
-mayın is the plural or formal negative imperative. Use unutmayın to address more than one person or to be polite/formal:
Lütfen ev adresini yazmayı unutmayın.
Why is the word order ev adresini yazmayı unutma (object before verb)?
Turkish is a Subject–Object–Verb (SOV) language. Here the understood subject is sen (you). The entire phrase ev adresini yazmayı (“writing the home address”) is the object of unutma, so it naturally comes before the verb.
Can we place lütfen at the end, and does the meaning change?
Yes. You can say Ev adresini yazmayı unutma, lütfen. That simply shifts the politeness marker to the end; the meaning remains “Don’t forget to write your home address, please.”
How would you translate Lütfen ev adresini yazmayı unutma into English?
Literally: “Please, don’t forget the writing of the home address.” A natural English equivalent is: “Please don’t forget to write your home address.”