Learn Hardcore Turkish: Spor yapmadan önce hafifçe ısınmak önemli. - It is important to warm up lightly before exercising.

spor – sport, exercise
yapmadan – without doing / before doing (from yapmak = to do)
- yap- – do
- -ma – negative suffix (not)
- -dan – ablative case (from)
- together yapmadan = without doing
önce – before
hafifçe – lightly, gently
- hafif – light (not heavy / not intense)
- -çe – adverb‑forming suffix (like “-ly” in English)
ısınmak – to warm up, to get warm (reflexive/ intransitive verb)
önemli – important

Overall structure:
[Before doing sport] [lightly] [to warm up] [is important].

Why is there no word for “it” like in English “It is important”?

Turkish usually drops the subject when it is obvious from context. In sentences like this:

Önemli. – (It is) important.

the subject is understood as “this” or “that thing we’re talking about.”

In the full sentence:

Spor yapmadan önce hafifçe ısınmak önemli.

the phrase spor yapmadan önce hafifçe ısınmak (to warm up lightly before doing sport) acts as the subject. There is no need for a separate “it”; Turkish just says literally:

To warm up lightly before doing sport important.
= It is important to warm up lightly before doing sport.

What grammatical form is ısınmak, and why isn’t it conjugated like ısınıyorum or ısınmalısın?

Isınmak is the infinitive form: to warm up / to get warm.

Turkish infinitives with -mak / -mek can act like nouns. Here, the whole infinitive phrase:

hafifçe ısınmak – to warm up lightly

is being talked about as an action in general, not as something happening right now or done by a specific person.

So instead of:

You must warm up lightly before doing sport.

Turkish can say:

Spor yapmadan önce hafifçe ısınmak önemli.
To warm up lightly before doing sport is important.

If we wanted a direct command, we would conjugate it:

Spor yapmadan önce hafifçe ısının. – Warm up lightly before doing sport.

What exactly does yapmadan mean, and how is it formed from yapmak?

Yapmadan comes from yapmak = to do.

Formation:

yap- – do
-ma – negative suffix: “not”
-dan / -den – ablative case: “from”

So literally: “from not doing”, which functions like “without doing”.

Spor yapmadan – without doing sport / without exercising

When combined with önce (before), it often has a temporal sense:

Spor yapmadan önce – before doing sport / before exercising

So yapmadan önce here means “before you do (it)”, referring to sport.

If yapmadan already means “without doing”, why do we also need önce (“before”)? Isn’t that redundant?

Good intuition, but in practice -madan and önce frequently appear together.

-madan by itself mainly expresses “without doing X”:
- Spor yapmadan gittim. – I went without doing sport.
-madan önce together is a very common pattern meaning “before doing X”:
- Spor yapmadan önce su içiyorum. – I drink water before doing sport.

So in this sentence:

Spor yapmadan önce – before doing sport

You can think of -madan önce as a fixed structure meaning “before [doing] …” even though, literally, it’s “before, from not doing”. It’s not redundant; it’s just how Turkish expresses this time relationship.

Why is spor yapmak used? Could we just say spor etmek or something else?

In Turkish, the natural collocation is:

spor yapmak – to do sport, to exercise

Literally “to do sport”. You do spor; you don’t have it or play it in general.

Some related patterns:

spor yapmak – to exercise / work out
yüzme yapmak – to do swimming (less common than yüzmek, but you may see it)
alışveriş yapmak – to do shopping

Spor etmek is not idiomatic in modern Turkish. So:

✅ Spor yapmadan önce… – Before doing sport…
❌ Spor etmeden önce… – unnatural

Why do we say hafifçe ısınmak and not just hafif ısınmak?

Hafifçe is an adverb, made from the adjective hafif (light) using -çe, which often corresponds to English “-ly”:

hafif – light (adjective)
hafifçe – lightly (adverb)

In Turkish, adverbs (not adjectives) normally modify verbs, so:

hafifçe ısınmak – to warm up lightly / gently

You can sometimes hear hafif ısınmak colloquially, but hafifçe ısınmak is more standard and clearly adverbial.

Other examples with -ce / -ça:

yavaş → yavaşça – slow → slowly, gently
ağır → ağır ağır (reduplication) or ağırca – heavy → heavily / slowly

What is the role of önemli at the end? Where is the verb “is”?

Önemli is an adjective meaning important.

Turkish often uses adjectives + a “hidden” copula to make sentences like “X is Y”:

Hava güzel. – (The) weather (is) nice.
Bu zor. – This (is) hard.

Similarly:

… önemli. – (… is) important.

There is no separate word for “is”; it is understood. If you want to be a bit more formal or explicit, you can add -dir:

Spor yapmadan önce hafifçe ısınmak önemlidir. – … is important. (more formal, neutral statement)

But in everyday speech and writing, önemli alone is completely natural.

What is the subject of this sentence? What is it that “is important”?

The subject is the entire infinitive phrase:

Spor yapmadan önce hafifçe ısınmak
– to warm up lightly before doing sport

So the structure is:

[Spor yapmadan önce hafifçe ısınmak] – subject
önemli – predicate adjective

In English:
To warm up lightly before doing sport is important.

Turkish very often uses -mak / -mek infinitive phrases as the subject of “X is Y” sentences:

Erken kalkmak zor. – Waking up early is hard.
Sağlıklı beslenmek önemli. – Eating healthily is important.

Can the word order be changed, for example: Hafifçe ısınmak spor yapmadan önce önemli?

Turkish word order is relatively flexible, but there is a default, most natural order. In your example:

Spor yapmadan önce hafifçe ısınmak önemli. – natural, smooth

If you say:

Hafifçe ısınmak spor yapmadan önce önemli.

it is grammatically possible, but it sounds a bit awkward or marked. It might be used for special emphasis (emphasizing hafifçe ısınmak first), but it’s not the neutral way to say it.

Very commonly, time expressions like spor yapmadan önce come towards the beginning of the sentence, and the main predicate (önemli) comes at the end. Your original sentence follows that pattern perfectly.

Could we say Spor yapmadan önce hafifçe ısının instead? How does that differ in meaning?

Yes, and it changes the sentence from a statement to a command / suggestion.

Spor yapmadan önce hafifçe ısınmak önemli.
– It is important to warm up lightly before doing sport.
(general statement, talking about what is important)
Spor yapmadan önce hafifçe ısının.
– Warm up lightly before doing sport.
(imperative, telling you what to do – polite/plural -ın)

So:

-mak form (ısınmak) = “to warm up” (as a general action)
ısının = “(you) warm up” (imperative, addressing someone)

Can we add words like çok or mutlaka? Where would they go and what do they change?

Yes, these are common intensifiers:

çok – very
mutlaka – definitely / absolutely / without fail

Possible versions:

Spor yapmadan önce hafifçe ısınmak çok önemli.
– It is very important to warm up lightly before doing sport.
Spor yapmadan önce hafifçe ısınmak mutlaka önemli.
(less natural; mutlaka usually goes with the verb/action, not önemli)

More natural with a command:

Spor yapmadan önce mutlaka hafifçe ısının.
– Before doing sport, definitely warm up lightly.
Spor yapmadan önce mutlaka ısınmak önemli.
– It is important to warm up without fail before doing sport. (a bit clunky but understandable)

Default and most natural intensification for the original structure:

Spor yapmadan önce hafifçe ısınmak çok önemli.