Breakdown of Eğer zaman bitmek üzere olsaydı, düğmeler ve etiketler atölyede tamamlatılırdı.
ve
and
zaman
time
olmak
to be
bitmek
to finish / to end
eğer
if
üzere
about to / on the verge of
tamamlamak
to complete
düğme
button
etiket
label
atölye
workshop
Questions & Answers about Eğer zaman bitmek üzere olsaydı, düğmeler ve etiketler atölyede tamamlatılırdı.
How do we get "would be ordered to be completed" from tamamlatılırdı?
This is a great example of stacked suffixes! The root is tamamla- (complete). We add the causative -t to make tamamlat- (have someone complete / order to complete). Next comes the passive -ıl, making tamamlatıl- (to be ordered to be completed). Finally, we add the current lesson's grammar: the aorist past -ırdı. In the main clause of a conditional sentence, the aorist past translates to "would do" or "would happen".
What is the function of üzere in bitmek üzere?
When you place üzere right after a verb in its dictionary form (-mAk or -mEk), it means "about to" or "on the verge of". Since bitmek means "to end" or "to run out", the phrase bitmek üzere means "about to run out".
Why does the sentence use the helper verb olsaydı instead of attaching the "if" suffix directly to bitmek?
We want to say "if it were about to run out". The phrase bitmek üzere (about to run out) doesn't have a conjugatable verb at the end—üzere acts as a postposition here. To attach the conditional past suffixes (-sa-y-dı), we must use the helper verb olmak (to be), which gives us olsaydı (if it were).
Is eğer necessary here since we already have the "if" suffix (-sa) on olsaydı?
No, it is technically optional. The suffix -sa in olsaydı already provides the "if" meaning perfectly on its own. However, adding eğer at the beginning of the clause is very common in Turkish to signal to the listener right away that a condition is coming, which is especially helpful in longer sentences.
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