Breakdown of Çevreci olmak istersen, araba yerine bisiklet kullan.
araba
car
olmak
to be
istemek
to want / to require / to call for
kullanmak
to use
bisiklet
bicycle
yerine
instead of
çevreci
eco-friendly
Questions & Answers about Çevreci olmak istersen, araba yerine bisiklet kullan.
How does yerine work in araba yerine? Why isn't there a suffix on araba?
The word yerine means 'instead of' or literally 'to its place'. When you are talking about a general category of things, like 'a car' in general, you just use the plain noun before yerine. If you were talking about a specific car ('instead of the car'), you would need the genitive case: arabanın yerine.
How is the word çevreci (eco-friendly) formed?
It comes from the noun çevre, which means 'environment' or 'surroundings'. The suffix -ci is used to describe a person associated with a thing (like an occupation or an advocate). So çevreci translates to 'environmentalist' or 'eco-friendly'.
Let's break down the verb istersen (if you want). What suffixes are used here?
It is made of the verb root iste- (want), the aorist tense suffix -r (used for general, timeless statements), the conditional suffix -se (if), and the 'you' ending -n. Combining them makes istersen, meaning 'if you want'.
Why is kullan used without any tense endings?
Because it is an imperative (a command). When you give a direct command to a single person informally, you just use the plain root of the verb. Here, kullan means 'use!'.
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