Breakdown of Vanalar kapalı olduğu sürece gövdeye su girmez.
kapalı
closed / off (switched off)
su
water
olmak
to be
girmek
to enter
sürece
as long as
vana
valve
gövde
hull
Questions & Answers about Vanalar kapalı olduğu sürece gövdeye su girmez.
This lesson is about adding -dığı sürece to verbs. How do we use it with an adjective like kapalı (closed)?
Since vanalar (valves) is plural, shouldn't it be oldukları sürece instead of just olduğu sürece?
In Turkish, when the subject is non-human and already pluralized (vanalar), the verb or verbal noun usually takes the singular third-person form (olduğu). Using oldukları wouldn't be strictly wrong, but the singular is much more natural here.
Why does gövde (hull) have the dative -y-e ending here?
The verb girmek (to enter) always takes the dative case for the destination you are entering. In Turkish logic, water doesn't 'enter the hull'; it 'enters to the hull' (gövdeye girmez).
Why use the aorist negative (girmez) instead of the present continuous (girmiyor)?
The aorist tense is the go-to choice for general facts, rules, and physical truths. Because this sentence describes a general mechanical fact, girmez is much better than the continuous girmiyor (which would sound more like 'isn't entering right at this moment').
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