Breakdown of Kardeşim pırasayı sarımsakla yemezdi.
yemek
to eat
kardeş
sibling
ile
with / by / and (linking nouns)
pırasa
leek
Questions & Answers about Kardeşim pırasayı sarımsakla yemezdi.
How do the suffixes on yemezdi create the meaning of "wouldn't eat"?
This word uses the aorist past negative structure. It breaks down into the verb root ye- (eat), the negative aorist suffix -mez, and the past tense suffix -di. Together, -mezdi expresses a past habit or routine that is no longer true, translating to "used to not" or "would not".
Could yemezdi also mean "wouldn't eat" in the sense of refusing to eat it on one specific occasion?
No, that is a common trap! In English, "wouldn't" can mean a past habit OR a past refusal. In Turkish, -mezdi is strictly for habitual or repeated past actions. If your sibling simply refused to eat the leek at dinner last night, you would use the standard past tense: yemedi (didn't eat).
The English translation says "the leek". What marks it as specific in Turkish?
The word pırasa (leek) takes the specific accusative suffix -ı (becoming pırasayı with the -y- buffer). This shows that the sibling wouldn't eat a specific dish of leeks. If the sentence were talking about leeks in general, it would just be the bare noun: pırasa yemezdi.
Where is the word for "with" in sarımsakla?
The word for "with" is ile, but it is very often attached directly to the end of a noun as a suffix. Following vowel harmony rules for the back vowel 'a' in sarımsak (garlic), it becomes the suffix -la.