Learn Hardcore Turkish: Öğretmen, ödevimizi zamanında teslim etmemizi özellikle istedi. - The teacher specifically asked us to submit our homework on time.

So ödevimizi literally means “our homework” as a direct object:
(ne/neyi?) neyi istedi? – ödevimizi…
“(what did (s/he) want?) – our homework …”

What exactly does teslim etmemizi mean, and how is it formed?

teslim etmemizi comes from the verb phrase teslim etmek (to submit, to hand in) and is turned into a kind of noun clause.

Breakdown:

teslim etmek – to submit / to hand in
teslim et- – verb stem
-me – verbal noun ending (like “submitting / to submit” used as a noun)
-miz – our (1st person plural possessive), marking the subject of this verbal noun: “our submitting” / “that we submit”
-i – accusative case, because this whole chunk is the object of istedi (wanted)

So teslim etmemizi ≈ “our submitting (it)” / “that we submit (it)”.

In the full sentence, it’s part of the bigger object clause:
ödevimizi zamanında teslim etmemizi – “that we submit our homework on time”.

Why do we have -miz both in ödevimizi and in etmemizi? Isn’t that repeating “our”?

The two -miz endings do different jobs:

In ödevimizi, -imiz shows that the homework belongs to us:
- ödevimiz – our homework
In etmemizi, -miz marks who is doing the action in the subordinate clause:
- etmemiz – our submitting = that we submit

So in detail:

ödevimizi – “our homework” (possessor = we)
teslim etmemizi – “our submitting / that we submit” (subject = we)

Turkish often uses this pattern for object clauses:
[bizim] ödevimizi zamanında teslim etmemiz – “(our) submitting our homework on time”.

Both are natural and necessary in Turkish:

one for the owner of the homework,
one for the doer of the action “to submit”.

Where is the word “us” in this sentence? Why is there no separate pronoun like bizi?

The idea of “us” is built into the possessive endings instead of a separate pronoun:

ödevimiz – our homework → indicates we as owners
etmemiz – our submitting → indicates we as the subject of “submit”

So we/us is expressed by -imiz/-miz, not by a separate word.

If you really want to make it explicit, you can say:

Öğretmen, bizim ödevimizi zamanında teslim etmemizi özellikle istedi.

Here bizim is an explicit pronoun, but in normal speech it’s usually omitted because -miz already tells you it’s “we/us”.

Why does etmemizi take the -i accusative ending? Could we drop it?

etmemizi is the direct object of istedi:

Öğretmen neyi özellikle istedi?
– Ödevimizi zamanında teslim etmemizi.

Because it is a specific, definite thing that the teacher wanted (a particular action: that we submit our homework on time), it takes the accusative ending -i.

In many similar sentences, the accusative on a verbal noun is optional and often dropped in speech:

Öğretmen, ödevimizi zamanında teslim etmemizi özellikle istedi.
Öğretmen, ödevimizi zamanında teslim etmemizi özellikle istedi. (same pronunciation; some speakers might omit the written -i)

But the most careful, textbook form is with -i, especially in writing, because it clearly marks this whole clause as the object of istedi.

Could we say Öğretmen, ödevimizi zamanında teslim etmeyi özellikle istedi instead? What’s the difference?

Grammatically, ödevimizi zamanında teslim etmeyi özellikle istedi is possible, but its meaning is different and usually odd here.

teslim etmeyi = (someone’s) submitting (it)
- -me verbal noun + -yi accusative
- no -miz, so the subject is not specified

So Öğretmen, ödevimizi zamanında teslim etmeyi özellikle istedi literally means:

“The teacher especially wanted to submit our homework on time.”

Here the most natural subject of istedi is the teacher, so it sounds like the teacher is the one wanting to submit the homework, which is not what we mean.

To clearly say “the teacher wanted us to submit …”, you need the -miz on the embedded verb:

teslim etmemizi – that we submit
not
teslim etmeyi – (someone’s) submitting (ambiguous, default subject = the teacher)

What does zamanında literally mean, and is it the same as “on time”?

zamanında is indeed how you say “on time” in this context, and it’s built like this:

zaman – time
-ı – 3rd person singular possessive (“its”)
-n- – buffer consonant
-da – locative (“in / at”)

So literally: “in its time” → idiomatic: “on time / at the proper time”.

You can also hear vaktinde with the same meaning:

Ödevimizi vaktinde teslim etmemizi istedi.

In most everyday contexts, zamanında and vaktinde are interchangeable for “on time”.

What is the role of özellikle here? Does it mean “especially” or “specifically”, and what does it modify?

özellikle means “especially / particularly / specifically”.

In Öğretmen, ödevimizi zamanında teslim etmemizi özellikle istedi, it modifies the verb istedi and emphasizes what the teacher especially wanted:

The teacher may have wanted many things (be quiet, listen, study),
but especially wanted us to submit our homework on time.

So the focus is:
What did the teacher especially want? → our on-time submission of the homework.

Can we move özellikle in the sentence? Does the word order change the emphasis?

Yes, özellikle is relatively mobile, and moving it slightly shifts the focus:

Öğretmen, ödevimizi zamanında teslim etmemizi özellikle istedi.
– Neutral; emphasis on the wanting of that specific action.
Öğretmen, özellikle ödevimizi zamanında teslim etmemizi istedi.
– Emphasis that this particular condition (submitting homework on time)
was what the teacher especially cared about (as opposed to other possible requests).
Öğretmen, ödevimizi zamanında özellikle teslim etmemizi istedi.
– Much less natural; sounds like the “especially” is about the manner or timing of “submitting”, which is odd.

The most natural forms for your meaning are (1) and (2). In everyday speech, (2) is very common:

Öğretmen özellikle ödevimizi zamanında teslim etmemizi istedi.

Is the comma after Öğretmen necessary?

In Turkish, this comma is optional in such a short sentence. It is often used to create a brief pause after the subject, especially in writing, but grammatically:

Öğretmen, ödevimizi zamanında teslim etmemizi özellikle istedi.
Öğretmen ödevimizi zamanında teslim etmemizi özellikle istedi.

are both correct.

Writers often add the comma when the subject is longer or when they want to clearly separate the subject from a complex object clause. Here it’s more a matter of style than strict rule.

Could we use a finite clause instead of this nominalized structure? Something more like English “The teacher especially wanted that we submit…”?

Yes, Turkish can also express this with a finite clause, using diye or -mesini patterns, but the version you have is the most natural and common:

Öğretmen, ödevimizi zamanında teslim edelim diye özellikle istedi.
– Literally: “The teacher especially wanted (it) so that we submit our homework on time.”
– Here edelim is a finite verb (1st person plural “let’s submit / we should submit”).

However, the original:

Öğretmen, ödevimizi zamanında teslim etmemizi özellikle istedi.

is more compact and is the standard way to say “The teacher especially wanted us to submit our homework on time.” in natural Turkish.