Burada telefonla konuşmak serbest, ama kısa tutalım.

to be

Breakdown of Burada telefonla konuşmak serbest, ama kısa tutalım.

• burada: here
• konuşmak: to speak
• ama: but

Questions & Answers about Burada telefonla konuşmak serbest, ama kısa tutalım.

What does the suffix in telefonla mean?

It’s the comitative/instrumental “with/by” marker. telefonla literally means “with a phone / by phone,” i.e., “on the phone.” It comes from ile (“with”), which is often attached as a suffix:

• After a consonant: telefon ile → telefonla, tren ile → trenle
• After a vowel (buffer y appears): araba ile → arabayla, suyu ile → suyuyla

Why is konuşmak in the infinitive?

Turkish uses the infinitive (-mak/-mek) as a verbal noun to talk about actions in general. Here, telefonla konuşmak (“talking on the phone”) is the subject of the sentence. So the structure is “Talking on the phone here is allowed.”

• More formal: Burada telefonla konuşmak serbesttir.
• An alternative phrasing to address “you”: Burada telefonla konuşabilirsiniz.

Do we need the -dir ending in serbest?

No in everyday speech; yes in formal writing. The copular suffix -dir/-dır/-dur/-dür can be added for formality or emphasis: serbesttir. Colloquially it’s often dropped: serbest.

What exactly does kısa tutalım mean, and what verb form is it?