Breakdown of Yatırımcılar kazandıklarını kaybetmekten korkuyor.
korkmak
to fear
kaybetmek
to lose
kazanmak
to earn / to win
yatırımcı
investor
Questions & Answers about Yatırımcılar kazandıklarını kaybetmekten korkuyor.
How does kazandıklarını translate to "what they earned"?
This is a headless relative clause. We take the verb kazanmak (to earn) and add the participle -dık plus the plural possessive -ları (their), giving us kazandıkları (the things they earned). Because the actual noun is omitted (like parayı for the money), the participle itself acts like a noun. It literally means "their earned things".
What are the last two letters -nı on kazandıklarını doing?
They mark the accusative case. After forming kazandıkları (what they earned), it acts as the direct object of the next verb, kaybetmek (to lose). When adding a case ending after a third-person possessive suffix, Turkish requires the buffer letter -n-. Then we add the accusative suffix -ı, making it kazandıklarını.
Why is it kaybetmekten (from losing) instead of just kaybetmek (to lose)?
In Turkish, the verb korkmak (to be afraid/to fear) always requires the thing you are afraid of to take the ablative case (-dAn, meaning "from"). While English speakers say "afraid of losing," in Turkish you literally say "afraid from losing" (kaybetmekten).
I know the word for "lost" is kayıp. Why is the verb spelled kaybetmek here?