Yengem gelene kadar yeğenimle kalmam lazımdı.
I had to stay with my nephew until my aunt-in-law came.
Breakdown of Yengem gelene kadar yeğenimle kalmam lazımdı.
gelmek
to come
kalmak
to stay / to be left / to remain (in a state)
ile
with / by / and (linking nouns)
kadar
as ... as; until, up to
lazım
necessary
yenge
aunt-in-law / sister-in-law
yeğen
nephew / niece
Questions & Answers about Yengem gelene kadar yeğenimle kalmam lazımdı.
How does kalmam lazımdı translate to 'I had to stay'?
This uses the structure for past necessity. First, we turn the verb kalmak (to stay) into a short noun using -ma, and add the possessive -m (my) to make kalmam (my staying). Then, we add lazımdı, which is lazım (necessary) plus the past tense suffix -dı. Literally, it translates to 'my staying was necessary'.
How do we get 'until my aunt-in-law came' from gelene kadar?
To say 'until someone does something' in Turkish, you add the suffix -(y)Ana or -(y)ene to the verb root, followed by the word kadar. Here, gel (come) becomes gelene kadar (until coming). Notice that Turkish doesn't mark the past tense on this verb; the past tense in lazımdı at the end of the sentence is enough to show the whole event happened in the past.
I learned that 'aunt' is teyze or hala. What is a yenge?
Turkish has very specific words for relatives. Teyze is your mother's sister, and hala is your father's sister. Yenge refers to a female relative by marriage, like your uncle's wife (aunt-in-law) or your brother's wife (sister-in-law).
Why is it yeğenimle instead of using the separate word ile for 'with'?
The word ile means 'with', but in everyday Turkish, it is almost always attached directly to the previous word as a suffix. Following vowel harmony, it becomes -la or -le. Since yeğenim (my nephew) ends in a consonant and contains front vowels, we add -le to make yeğenimle (with my nephew).
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