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Araba kullanmaya başlamadan önce sigorta yaptırmalısın.

Araba kullanmaya başlamadan önce sigorta yaptırmalısın.
You should get insurance before you start driving a car.
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Questions & Answers about Araba kullanmaya başlamadan önce sigorta yaptırmalısın.

What grammatical structure does kullanmaya başlamadan önce use to mean “before starting to drive”?

Breakdown of kullanmaya başlamadan önce:

  • kullan­mak (“to drive/use”) is turned into a verbal noun by adding -ma/-me → kullan­ma.
  • To link kullan­ma with başlamak (“to start”), we put it in the dative case -ya/-ye → kullan­ma­ya.
  • başla­mak takes a verbal noun in the dative: kullan­ma­ya başlamak = “to start driving.”
  • To say “before doing X,” Turkish adds the ablative suffix -dan/-den to the verbal noun: başla­ma­dan.
  • Finally, önce means “before.”
    Putting it all together:
    kullan­ma + ‑ya + başla­mak → kullan­ma­ya başla­mak (“to start driving”)
    başla­ma + ‑dan + önce → başla­ma­dan önce (“before starting”)
Why is it başlamadan and not başlameden?

Turkish vowel harmony dictates whether you use -dan or -den:

  • If the last vowel in the stem is a front vowel (e, i, ö, ü), you use -den.
  • If it’s a back vowel (a, ı, o, u), you use -dan.
    In başla- the vowel a is a back vowel, so you add -dan → başlamadan.
Why do we say sigorta yaptırmalısın instead of sigorta yapmalısın?
  • yapmak simply means “to do/make.”
  • yaptırmak is the causative of yapmak, meaning “to have something done” or “to get someone to do it.”
    When you want to express “get insurance,” Turkish uses the causative: sigorta yaptırmak.
    If you said sigorta yapmak, it literally means “to do insurance,” which is not the natural way to say “to insure” in Turkish.
What does the suffix -malısın express in yaptırmalısın?

The suffix -malı/-meli added to a verb stem expresses necessity or obligation (“must/should”).

  • yaptır (causative stem) + -malı (necessity) + -sın (2nd person singular) → yaptırmalısın = “you must get (it) done.”
Why is there no subject pronoun like sen (“you”) in the sentence?
Turkish is a pro-drop language. The verb ending -sın already indicates 2nd person singular (“you”), so the subject pronoun sen is optional and usually omitted unless needed for emphasis.
Why isn’t sigorta marked with the accusative case (e.g. sigortayı)?

In Turkish, bare nouns (no accusative suffix) are used when the object is indefinite or general. Here sigorta = “(any) insurance.”
If you wanted a specific insurance that both speaker and listener know, you’d use the accusative: sigortayı yaptırmalısın (“you must get that insurance done”).

Can we shorten kullanmaya başlamadan önce to kullanmadan önce?

Yes. Araba kullanmadan önce sigorta yaptırmalısın is perfectly natural and means “You must get insurance before driving a car.”

  • Dropping başlamadan simply compresses “before you drive” without the nuance of “starting to.”
Can we change the word order for emphasis?

Turkish allows fairly flexible word order, but subordinate clauses (like kullanmaya başlamadan önce) usually stay intact.
Examples:

  • Sigorta yaptırmalısın araba kullanmaya başlamadan önce. (puts the obligation first)
  • Araba kullanmaya başlamadan önce sigorta yaptırmalısın. (neutral/default order)
    All are correct; you just shift which part you want to emphasize.