When evaluating an outcome—like dissecting a team's performance after an intense escape room—Turkish uses two distinct words to separate positive credit from negative blame.
Positive Attribution: sayesinde
To express "thanks to," use the postposition sayesinde. It is used strictly for positive outcomes where you want to give credit.
| Thanks to his intelligence, we finished the escape game. | Onun zekâsı sayesinde kaçış oyununu bitirdik. |
Grammatically, sayesinde follows a word in the genitive case. When crediting a specific trait, the person or group takes the genitive suffix (the "possessor"), and their helpful trait takes the possessive suffix.
| Thanks to the team's cooperation, we won the game. | Takımın işbirliği sayesinde oyunu kazandık. |
Negative Cause: yüzünden
To express "because of" in a negative sense—when assigning blame or explaining a failure—use yüzünden.
| Because of your impatience, we lost the game. | Senin sabırsızlığın yüzünden oyunu kaybettik. |
It works exactly like sayesinde grammatically, but strictly carries a tone of fault or regret.
| Because of their mistake, the door did not open. | Onların hatası yüzünden kapı açılmadı. |
Blaming or Crediting Directly
If you want to attribute the outcome directly to a specific person or group rather than a trait, simply attach the genitive suffix directly to that person or group, immediately followed by the postposition.
| Because of the players who argued, we lost time. | Kavga eden oyuncuların yüzünden zaman kaybettik. |
Contrasting Outcomes
In a post-game analysis, you can easily pair both structures in a single sentence to break down a mixed performance:
| We solved the problem thanks to your intelligence, but we lost time because of his carelessness. | Senin zekân sayesinde problemi çözdük ama onun dikkatsizliği yüzünden zaman kaybettik. |