Learn Hardcore Turkish: Senin artık Türkçe konuşurken daha az zorlandığını görüyorum. - I see that you now struggle less while speaking Turkish.

senin – your
zorlandığın – your having difficulty / the fact that you struggle
zorlandığını görüyorum – I see your having difficulty / I see that you struggle

Turkish often uses a genitive + possessed verb form to say “that you …”, “that he …”, etc.
So sen zorlanıyorsun = you are having difficulty,
but senin zorlandığın = your having difficulty / the fact that you have difficulty.

Because it’s this noun clause (senin … zorlandığın) that is the object of görüyorum, we need senin, not sen.

Can senin be left out? Is Artık Türkçe konuşurken daha az zorlandığını görüyorum also correct?

Yes, you can omit senin in casual speech:

Artık Türkçe konuşurken daha az zorlandığını görüyorum.

This is still grammatically correct. The -ın in zorlandığını already shows that the subject of that clause is “you”.

However:

Including senin makes it a bit clearer and can sound slightly more careful/emphatic.
Leaving it out is common in fast, informal conversation when the subject is obvious from context.

What exactly does zorlanmak mean? How is it different from just zor?

zor = difficult, hard (an adjective)
- Türkçe zor. – Turkish is hard.
zorlanmak = to have difficulty (doing something), to struggle, to be forced / strained

In this sentence:

zorlanmak means “to have difficulty / to struggle” (not “to be forced”).
zorlanmak is often used with another verb or activity:
- Türkçe konuşurken zorlanıyorum. – I have difficulty when I speak Turkish.

So zor describes something (“hard”),
while zorlanmak describes your experience (“to struggle / to have trouble”).

How is zorlandığını formed? It looks very long.

Zorlandığını is built step by step:

zorlanmak – to have difficulty
Remove -mak (infinitive): zorlan-
Add the noun-clause suffix -dik (written as -dık / -dik / -duk / -dük according to vowel harmony):
- Last vowel is a (back, unrounded), so we choose -dık:
  zorlan + dık → zorlandık
Add 2nd person singular possessive -ın (“your”):
- zorlandık + ın → zorlandığın
- The k softens to ğ before a vowel: zorlandığın
Now it means: “your having difficulty / the fact that you have difficulty”.
Add accusative -ı (because this whole thing is the direct object of görüyorum):
- Last vowel is ı, so accusative is -ı:
  zorlandığın + ı → zorlandığını

So:

zorlan- (root)
-dık (turns verb into a noun clause)
-ın (your)
-ı (accusative object)

= zorlandığını – your having difficulty (as the thing that I see)

Why do we use zorlandığını instead of zorlanıyorsun?

Because in Turkish, after verbs like görmek, bilmek, fark etmek, duymak, etc., it’s very common to use a noun clause, not a finite “that-clause” as in English.

English:

I see that you have less difficulty.

Turkish structures it more like:

I see your having less difficulty.

This “your having less difficulty” is zorlandığın, a noun-like form of the verb.
To be the object of görüyorum, it gets the accusative -ı → zorlandığını.

So:

Sen artık Türkçe konuşurken daha az zorlanıyorsun.
– Independent statement: “You now have less difficulty when speaking Turkish.”
Senin artık Türkçe konuşurken daha az zorlandığını görüyorum.
– “I see that you now have less difficulty when speaking Turkish.”

What is the function of the final -ı in zorlandığını?

That final -ı is the accusative case marker, showing that this whole phrase is the direct object of görüyorum.

Neyi görüyorum? – What do I see?
(Senin) daha az zorlandığını. – (that) you have less difficulty.

Structure:

zorlandığın – your having difficulty (a noun-like phrase)
zorlandığını – your having difficulty (as the thing being seen) → direct object

What does konuşurken mean, and how does -ken work?

Konuşurken = “while speaking / when (you are) speaking”.

Form:

konuşmak – to speak
konuşur – (aorist stem; here it’s just the base used before -ken)
-ken – while / when

-ken attaches to certain verb forms and means “while doing X” or “when X happens”.

Other examples:

yürürken – while walking
yemek yerken – while eating
arabayı sürerken – while driving the car

So Türkçe konuşurken = while speaking Turkish.

Why is the word order Türkçe konuşurken instead of konuşurken Türkçe?

Both are actually possible, but Türkçe konuşurken is more natural and common:

Türkçe konuşurken – literally “while speaking Turkish”
Here, Türkçe directly modifies konuşurken (what kind of speaking? Turkish-speaking).

You could say konuşurken Türkçe, but it sounds a bit more marked / less smooth. In Turkish, modifiers (like adverbs or what-language-you-speak) usually come before the verb they modify, so:

Türkçe konuşmak, Türkçe konuşurken is the default pattern.

What nuance does artık add to the sentence?

Artık roughly means “now (as of recently / from now on)”, with the idea that “things have changed compared to before.”

In this sentence:

It suggests: “Before, you struggled more, but now you struggle less.”

Other examples:

Artık sigara içmiyorum. – I don’t smoke anymore.
Artık anlıyorum. – Now I (finally) understand.

So artık adds a sense of “anymore / now, as a change from the past.”

What does daha az mean? Why not just az?

az = little, few, not much
daha az = less (literally “more little” → comparative form)

Here, the speaker is comparing now to before:

daha az zorlanmak – to struggle less / have less difficulty (than before)

If you said just az zorlanmak, it would mean “to have little difficulty”, without clearly expressing the comparison.
Daha az makes the comparison explicit: “less (than before / than usual).”

Why is Türkçe standing alone, without any case ending like Türkçeyi?

Language names with -ce/-ça (Türkçe, İngilizce, Almanca, etc.) are often used as an adverb, meaning “in Turkish / in English / in German”, and in that use they don’t take extra case endings.

Türkçe konuşmak – to speak Turkish / to speak in Turkish
İngilizce yazıyorum. – I am writing in English.

Here, Türkçe describes how you speak (in which language), so it functions adverbially and doesn’t need a case ending.

Can the word order of the whole sentence be changed? For example, can artık go somewhere else?

Yes, Turkish word order is quite flexible as long as the main verb görüyorum stays at the end. Some natural variants:

Artık senin Türkçe konuşurken daha az zorlandığını görüyorum.
Senin Türkçe konuşurken artık daha az zorlandığını görüyorum.
Senin Türkçe konuşurken daha az zorlandığını artık görüyorum. (more emphasis on artık görüyorum)

All are grammatically fine; the differences are about focus/emphasis:

Putting artık earlier (Artık senin…) emphasizes the change more generally.
Putting artık right before daha az zorlandığını ties it tightly to the “less difficulty” part.
Putting artık just before görüyorum can sound like “I (finally) now see it.”

Is there a more literal English-like way to understand the Turkish structure?

Yes. You can think of it like this:

Senin … zorlandığın ≈ “your having difficulty …” / “the fact that you have difficulty …”
Senin artık Türkçe konuşurken daha az zorlandığını görüyorum.
≈ “I see your (now) having less difficulty when you speak Turkish.”

So, structurally:

Turkish: [your + (having less difficulty while speaking Turkish)] I see.
English: I see [that you have less difficulty when speaking Turkish now].

The grammar is different, but this “your + -dığın” → “your having …” analogy helps match the pieces.

How could I say the same idea in a simpler Turkish sentence?

You could break it into two sentences or avoid the noun-clause structure:

Artık Türkçe konuşurken daha az zorlanıyorsun. Bunu görüyorum.
– You now have less difficulty when speaking Turkish. I see this.

Or:

Artık Türkçe konuşurken daha az zorlanıyorsun, fark ediyorum.
– You now have less difficulty when speaking Turkish, I notice.

These are a bit simpler because they keep zorlanıyorsun as a normal finite verb and put bunu or fark ediyorum afterwards, instead of using zorlandığını as a noun clause.