Learn Hardcore Turkish: Arkadaşım gitar çalmayı öğrenirken ben de sazı deniyorum. - While my friend is learning to play the guitar, I'm also trying the lute.

The suffix -ken attaches to a verb stem to form a temporal adverbial clause meaning “while (doing something).” Here, öğren- (the stem of öğrenmek, “to learn”) + -irken gives öğrenirken, “while (someone) is learning.”

Why is it öğrenirken and not öğreniyorken?

When you make a “while doing” clause in Turkish, you use the bare verb stem (not the continuous -iyor form) plus -ken. So instead of öğreniyor + ken, you drop -iyor and add -ken directly to the stem öğren-, yielding öğrenirken.

Why is there a y in öğrenirken?

Turkish avoids two adjacent vowels across a word boundary. When the stem ends in a vowel and the suffix begins with a vowel, a buffer -y- is inserted. Here öğren- ends in -n (consonant), but the historical pattern or dialectal influence still inserts y before -ken, giving öğrenirken rather than öğrenrken.

Why is çalmayı used instead of çalmak in gitar çalmayı öğrenirken?

The verb öğrenmek (to learn) takes an infinitive object in the accusative. The naked infinitive is gitar çalmak (“to play guitar”). To use it as the object of öğrenmek, you add the accusative suffix -ı to the infinitive stem, giving gitar çalmayı (“learning to play the guitar”).

Why is sazı in the accusative form instead of just saz?

Denemek (“to try”) is a transitive verb and when its object is definite or specific, Turkish marks it with the accusative suffix. So saz (“saz,” a Turkish lute) becomes sazı (“the saz”) as the object of deniyorum.

What does ben de mean, and why do we include ben here?

Ben means “I” and de is the enclitic for “also/too.” Together ben de means “I, too.” We include ben because the subject of the main clause (ben) is different from the subject of the subordinate clause (arkadaşım). When subjects differ, you must state the subject pronoun in the main clause.

Could we omit ben since Turkish often drops pronouns?

If the subject of both clauses were the same, you could drop the pronoun entirely. But here the subordinate clause’s subject is arkadaşım (“my friend”) and the main clause’s subject is ben (“I”). You cannot drop ben without causing confusion about who is trying the saz.

How is the form deniyorum built?

Start from the verb root dene- (from denemek, “to try”), add the present-continuous tense marker -iyor-, then the 1st person singular suffix -um. So dene- + -iyor- + -um → deniyorum, “I am trying.”

What exactly is a saz?

A saz (also called bağlama) is a family of Turkish long-necked string instruments, somewhat like a lute. It’s one of the most common traditional instruments in Türkiye.