Breakdown of Bu plan zahmetli ama önemli.
Questions & Answers about Bu plan zahmetli ama önemli.
Bu means this and refers to something close to the speaker in space, time, or context.
- Bu plan = this plan (e.g., the one we’re talking about right now or the one in front of us).
- Şu plan = that plan (there), usually something that’s not right next to you but still somewhat present or being pointed out.
- O plan = that plan in a more distant sense, either physically far away or just mentioned earlier in the conversation/story.
In many everyday contexts, both bu plan and o plan can end up being translated simply as this plan or that plan, depending on what sounds more natural in English. Turkish is just a bit more fine‑grained about distance than English is.
Turkish often leaves out the verb to be (is, am, are) in the present tense when you’re just linking a subject to an adjective or noun. This is called a nominal sentence.
- Bu plan zahmetli. = This plan is troublesome.
- Bu plan önemli. = This plan is important.
There’s no separate word for is; the link is understood.
If you really want to make it sound more factual or formal, you can add the suffix -dır/-dir/-dur/-dür:
- Bu plan zahmetlidir ama önemlidir.
This sounds more formal, like something from written reports or official speech. In everyday conversation, people simply say:
- Bu plan zahmetli ama önemli.
Zahmetli comes from zahmet (effort, trouble, bother) + the suffix -li (having, with). Literally, it’s something like having trouble or involving a lot of effort.
Nuance:
- zahmetli: troublesome, labor‑intensive, requires a lot of effort/time/energy.
- zor: hard, difficult, challenging (more general).
Compare:
- Bu plan zor.
- The plan is hard/difficult (maybe complex, maybe mentally challenging).
- Bu plan zahmetli.
- The plan will take a lot of work, time, or hassle; it’s a big effort, maybe tiring or tedious.
Something can be zor but not very zahmetli (mentally hard but quick), or very zahmetli but not especially zor (lots of repetitive work, but not intellectually challenging).
Zahmetli is an adjective. It behaves like other Turkish adjectives:
- It does not change for gender (Turkish has no grammatical gender).
- It does not change for singular/plural.
So:
- zahmetli plan – a troublesome plan
- zahmetli planlar – troublesome plans
- Bu plan zahmetli. – This plan is troublesome.
- Bu planlar zahmetli. – These plans are troublesome.
The form zahmetli stays the same in all of these.
Ama is a conjunction meaning but. In Bu plan zahmetli ama önemli, it links two adjectives describing the same subject:
- Bu plan [zahmetli] ama [önemli].
- This plan is troublesome but important.
Position:
- Ama typically comes between the two parts it’s contrasting.
- You cannot move ama to the very beginning of the sentence in this exact structure like in English.
Correct:
- Bu plan zahmetli ama önemli.
If you break it into two clauses, you can also say:
- Bu plan zahmetli, ama önemli.
- Still: This plan is troublesome, but (it’s) important.
You would not say:
- ✗ Bu plan ama zahmetli. (unnatural/wrong in this context)
Yes, Bu plan önemli ama zahmetli is grammatically correct. The basic meaning is the same, but the emphasis shifts.
Bu plan zahmetli ama önemli.
- The first thing you state is that it’s troublesome, then you contrast it with but (still) important.
- Feels like: “It’s a pain, but it matters.”
Bu plan önemli ama zahmetli.
- You start by stressing its importance, then add that it’s troublesome as a downside.
- Feels like: “It’s important, but unfortunately it’s a lot of work.”
In spoken Turkish, word order + intonation both contribute to what you’re highlighting.
Turkish does not have separate articles like a/an and the. Nouns without any article can often correspond to either a or the in English, depending on context.
- Bu plan zahmetli ama önemli.
- Literally: This plan troublesome but important.
- Natural English: This plan is troublesome but important.
If you want to emphasize that it is a plan (not specific), you can use bir:
- Bu bir plan. – This is a plan.
- Bu plan bir hayli zahmetli. – This plan is quite troublesome.
But in Bu plan zahmetli ama önemli, adding bir would be odd; bu plan is already specific (this plan).
Turkish adjectives are invariable:
- No gender: There is no masculine/feminine/neutral form.
- No number agreement: They do not change for singular vs. plural.
So:
- önemli plan – important plan
- önemli planlar – important plans
- Bu plan önemli. – This plan is important.
- Bu planlar önemli. – These plans are important.
The adjectives zahmetli and önemli stay exactly the same in all these cases.
The most common way is to add çok (very, a lot) before the adjective:
- Bu plan çok zahmetli ama çok önemli.
- This plan is very troublesome but very important.
You can also use other intensifiers:
- oldukça zahmetli – quite/pretty troublesome
- epey zahmetli – quite troublesome, rather troublesome
- son derece önemli – extremely important
- çok önemli ama biraz zahmetli – very important but a bit troublesome
All of these go before the adjective they modify.
Yes, you can, with a small nuance in style:
- Bu plan zahmetli fakat önemli.
- Bu plan zahmetli ancak önemli.
All three (ama, fakat, ancak) can mean but. Differences:
- ama – most common and informal/neutral; used all the time in speech.
- fakat – a bit more formal or literary; often appears in written texts.
- ancak – can mean but, but also only/just in other contexts; slightly more formal or careful in tone here.
In this sentence, all three are perfectly acceptable; ama is the most everyday and natural in casual conversation.