Breakdown of Keşke daha serbest çalışmak için imkânım olsa.
çalışmak
to work / to study
olmak
to be
daha
more
için
for
Questions & Answers about Keşke daha serbest çalışmak için imkânım olsa.
The translation says "I wish I had", but the verb is olsa (to be). Why aren't we using a verb for "have"?
In Turkish, "I have an opportunity" is expressed as "my opportunity exists" using the word var. Since there is no single everyday verb for "to have", making a wish about having something uses the verb olmak (to be/exist) in the conditional mood. So, imkânım olsa literally means "if only my opportunity existed".
Why do we use the conditional ending -sa in olsa for a sentence about a wish?
To express a wish about the present or future, Turkish pairs the word keşke (I wish / if only) with the conditional mood (-sa / -se). It works a lot like saying "If only it were true..." in English.
How does çalışmak için translate to "the opportunity to work"?
Çalışmak için literally translates to "in order to work" or "for working" (infinitive verb + için). So the full phrase çalışmak için imkânım olsa essentially means "I wish I had the opportunity for working (more freely)".
Serbest means "free". Why isn't there a suffix to make it an adverb meaning "freely"?
In Turkish, many adjectives can be used directly as adverbs to describe a verb without needing any extra suffixes (like "-ly" in English). Placing serbest directly before the verb çalışmak automatically makes it mean "to work freely" or "to freelance".