Breakdown of Keşke bu fosili kazıdan önce bulsaydık.
bu
this
bulmak
to find
önce
before / first / firstly
keşke
if only / I wish
kazı
excavation
fosil
fossil
Questions & Answers about Keşke bu fosili kazıdan önce bulsaydık.
The English translation uses 'we had found', which sounds like the Past Perfect tense. Why isn't the Turkish verb bulmuştuk?
In English, we use the Past Perfect tense to express wishes about the past. However, in Turkish, when you make a past unfulfilled wish (especially using keşke), you must use the Past Conditional tense. That is why we use the conditional suffix -sa followed by the past tense -dı to make bulsaydık, instead of the Past Perfect bulmuştuk.
How exactly is the verb bulsaydık built?
It starts with the verb root bul (find). To this, we add the conditional suffix -sa (if/wish), a buffer letter -y-, the past tense copula -dı, and finally the personal suffix for 'we', which is -k. Together, bul-sa-y-dı-k creates the past unreal conditional meaning 'if only we had found'.
Why is the word for fossil written as fosili with an extra -i at the end?
Fosil takes the accusative case suffix -i because it is the specific direct object of the verb. Whenever you specify an object using a demonstrative adjective like bu (this), you must use the accusative case. Therefore, 'this fossil' becomes bu fosili.
Why does kazı (excavation) have the -dan ending before önce?
In Turkish, the postposition önce (before) always requires the noun preceding it to be in the ablative case (the 'from' case). Because of this strict grammar rule, you have to add -dan to get kazıdan önce (literally 'before from the excavation').
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