Learn Hardcore Turkish: Ne çok sıcak ne de çok soğuk bir yerde yaşamak istiyorum. - I want to live in a place that is neither very hot nor very cold.

Ne X ne de Y – very common, sounds smooth and natural.
Ne X ne Y – also grammatically correct, often a bit more formal or terse, depending on context.

In this sentence:

Ne çok sıcak ne de çok soğuk
flows better than
Ne çok sıcak ne çok soğuk.

Here de is a conjunction, not the clitic -de meaning “also/too” or the locative suffix -de/da meaning “in/at/on”; it just links the second item in the “neither … nor …” pair.

Does ne here still mean “what”, like in Ne yapıyorsun??

No. Ne has two main uses:

As a question word: ne = what
- Ne yapıyorsun? = What are you doing?
As part of neither … nor …:
- Ne çok sıcak ne de çok soğuk = neither very hot nor very cold

In your sentence, ne is not a question word. It’s functioning as a coordinating conjunction in the fixed pattern ne … ne (de) ….

Why is çok repeated in ne çok sıcak ne de çok soğuk? Could I say ne çok sıcak ne de soğuk?

You can say:

Ne çok sıcak ne de soğuk bir yerde yaşamak istiyorum.

This is grammatically correct and understandable.

However, repeating çok:

Ne çok sıcak ne de çok soğuk…

adds a feeling of parallelism and balance, and emphasizes that you don’t want it to be very hot or very cold.

In speech and writing, Turkish often repeats the full phrase after ne:

Ne zenginim ne de fakirim. = I am neither rich nor poor.
Ne mutlu ne de mutsuz. = Neither happy nor unhappy.

So repeating çok is stylistically natural and sounds balanced.

Why is it bir yerde yaşamak istiyorum and not ben bir yerde yaşamak istiyorum?

In Turkish, the subject pronoun (like ben, sen, o) is usually dropped because it’s already clear from the verb ending.

istiyorum ends with -um, which marks 1st person singular (I).

So:

Bir yerde yaşamak istiyorum.
already means “I want to live in a place.”

Adding ben:

Ben bir yerde yaşamak istiyorum.

is possible, but usually adds emphasis on I (e.g., contrasting with others: Ben istiyorum, o istemiyor.).

What does yerde mean exactly, and why does it have -de at the end?

The base noun is yer = place / location.

The suffix -de/-da (with vowel harmony) is the locative case, meaning roughly “in / at / on”.

yer = place
yer
- -de → yerde = in a place / at a place

In this sentence:

bir yerde yaşamak = to live in a (certain) place

So yerde literally means “in a place”, and together with bir it’s “in a place” or more naturally “in a place / somewhere” in English.

Is de in ne de çok soğuk the same as -de in yerde?

No, they are different words that just happen to look similar:

de in ne de çok soğuk
- a separate word (written apart)
- a conjunction: helps form ne … ne de … = neither … nor …
-de in yerde
- a suffix (attached to the noun)
- the locative case: yer + de = in/at the place

You can detect the difference in writing:

conjunction de is separate: ne de
locative -de is attached: yerde

Why is the verb at the end: yaşamak istiyorum instead of istiyorum yaşamak?

Turkish has a basic SOV word order:

Subject – Object – Verb

Here, yaşamak istiyorum is a verb phrase with two parts:

yaşamak = to live (verbal noun / infinitive form)
istiyorum = I want

In Turkish, the main, conjugated verb typically comes last:

(Ben) bir yerde yaşamak istiyorum.
I – in a place – to live – want

Putting istiyorum earlier:

İstiyorum bir yerde yaşamak.

is possible in some contexts for emphasis or style, but the neutral, most natural order is with the finite verb last: … yaşamak istiyorum.

What tense is istiyorum, and why use that instead of something like isterim?

İstiyorum is in the present continuous tense:

root: iste- (to want)
tense: -iyor (present continuous)
person: -um (1st person singular)
istiyorum = I am wanting / I want

In Turkish, present continuous (-iyor) is very often used to express:

current desires
near-future intentions
ongoing states

So yaşamak istiyorum = I want to live / I would like to live.

İsterim is a different form (aorist), and in this context would sound more like:

Yaşamak isterim. = I would (in general) like to live (there / in such a place).

It can sound more general, hypothetical, or formal. İstiyorum is more natural for a real, current wish.

Why is there bir before yerde? Do I have to translate it as “a place”?

Yes, bir is the basic indefinite article / numeral meaning “one” or “a/an”.

yer = place
bir yer = a place
bir yerde = in a place / somewhere

In everyday language, bir in this position often corresponds to English “a” or even “some”:

Bir yerde yaşamak istiyorum.
= I want to live in a place (that is…)
= I want to live somewhere (that is…)

So you usually do include “a” or “somewhere” in translation, but context affects the most natural choice.

Could the sentence be rephrased using a relative clause, like “a place that is neither very hot nor very cold”?

Yes, very naturally. A common alternative is:

Ne çok sıcak ne de çok soğuk olan bir yerde yaşamak istiyorum.
= I want to live in a place that is neither very hot nor very cold.

Here:

olan comes from olmak (to be), used as a kind of relative clause marker.
Literally: “in a place which is neither very hot nor very cold”.

Your original sentence is slightly more compact and still perfectly natural without olan, because the adjectives immediately preceding bir yerde are clearly describing that place.

Is there any special stress or intonation on ne … ne de … when speaking?

Yes. In natural speech, you typically:

Put a bit of stress on the two items being contrasted:
- NE çok sıcak NE de çok soğuk bir yerde…
Often a slight pause between the two parts:
- Ne çok sıcak, ne de çok soğuk bir yerde yaşamak istiyorum.

This mirrors English intonation in “neither VERY hot, nor VERY cold”, helping the listener hear the contrast clearly.