Breakdown of Bir adam cimriyse ona aşık olmam.
bir
a / an
o
that / he / she / it
adam
man
cimri
stingy
aşık olmak
to fall in love
Questions & Answers about Bir adam cimriyse ona aşık olmam.
How is cimriyse formed and why is there a y in the middle?
It is made from the adjective cimri (stingy) and the conditional suffix -se (if). Because cimri ends in a vowel, we must add the buffer letter y before adding the conditional suffix. This gives us cimriyse (if he is stingy).
Why do we use ona (to him) instead of onunla (with him)?
In Turkish, the phrase aşık olmak (to fall in love) always takes the dative case, which shows direction. You think of it as falling in love 'to' someone. That is why the pronoun o (he) takes the dative suffix and becomes ona.
Why is the verb olmam used instead of the present continuous olmuyorum?
olmam is the negative form of the aorist (simple present) tense. In conditional sentences like this, Turkish usually uses the aorist tense in the main clause to express a general rule, habit, or personality trait. The speaker is stating a general fact about who they fall in love with, so the aorist is the most natural choice.
What does olmam literally mean in this sentence?
olmam comes from the helper verb olmak (to be or to become). It is the core of the compound verb aşık olmak. While we translate it as 'to fall in love', literally it means 'to become in love'. So aşık olmam literally translates to 'I do not become in love'.
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