Breakdown of Temizlikçi gelmedi, bu yüzden evi kocama zorla temizlettim.
ev
house
gelmek
to come
temizlemek
to clean
koca
husband
Questions & Answers about Temizlikçi gelmedi, bu yüzden evi kocama zorla temizlettim.
How is the causative formed in the word temizlettim?
The root verb is temizlemek (to clean). Because the verb stem temizle ends in a vowel and has more than one syllable, we use the causative suffix -t rather than -dir. This gives us temizlet (to make someone clean). Then we add the past tense -ti and the personal ending -m to get temizlettim (I made [someone] clean).
Why is "my husband" written as kocama (to my husband) instead of kocamı?
This is a crucial rule for causative sentences! If the original verb is transitive and already has a direct object (in this case, evi), the person you are making do the action must take the dative case (-e/-a). You are essentially saying "I caused the cleaning of the house to my husband" (koca + -m + -a).
If kocama is the one doing the cleaning, why is the house in the accusative case (evi)?
The house is the direct object receiving the action of the cleaning. Even though the verb is causative (temizletmek), the core action is still "cleaning the house," so ev requires the definite accusative marker -i to show exactly what is being cleaned.
The English translation says "I forced", but where is the verb for "to force" in Turkish?