Breakdown of Zararlı madde yerine doğal malzeme seçeyim.
seçmek
to choose
madde
substance
yerine
instead of
zararlı
harmful
Questions & Answers about Zararlı madde yerine doğal malzeme seçeyim.
How does yerine work in this sentence, and why doesn't madde have any suffixes?
yerine means "instead of". In Turkish, it comes right after the noun it applies to. When used with a plain noun like madde (substance), you don't need to add any linking suffixes to the noun itself. It literally translates to "to its place", so madde yerine means "instead of a substance".
What does the -eyim ending on seçeyim do?
It is the first-person singular optative ending, which translates to "let me" or "I should". You take the verb root seç- (to choose) and add -eyim to get seçeyim (let me choose).
Why don't we use the accusative case for the object, like doğal malzemeyi?
Because the speaker is referring to "a natural material" in general, not a specific one. When a direct object is indefinite, it stays in its plain dictionary form. If they wanted to say "let me choose THE natural material", they would use the accusative case: doğal malzemeyi seçeyim.
How is the word zararlı (harmful) formed?
It is formed by taking the noun zarar (harm or damage) and adding the suffix -lı (meaning "with" or "having"). This is a very common way in Turkish to turn a noun into an adjective, so zararlı literally means "with harm" or "harmful".