Breakdown of Elektrik kesintisi varken jeneratörü çalıştırsan iyi olur.
iyi
good
var
there is / existent
olmak
to be
elektrik
electricity
Questions & Answers about Elektrik kesintisi varken jeneratörü çalıştırsan iyi olur.
How does çalıştırsan iyi olur give the meaning of "you had better turn on"?
This is the standard Turkish structure for giving advice or making mild suggestions. It combines a verb in the conditional form (-sa or -se plus a personal ending) with iyi olur (literally "it becomes good"). So, çalıştır-sa-n iyi olur literally means "if you turn it on, it will be good," but it functions exactly like "you should" or "you had better" in English.
The root for "to work" is çalışmak. Why is it çalıştırmak here?
This uses the causative suffix -tır. While çalışmak means "to work" (e.g., a machine functioning or a person doing a job), çalıştırmak means "to make something work" or "to operate/turn on" a machine. Because you are the one making the generator work, you use the causative form.
How does the word varken work in this sentence?
It is made of the word var ("there is" or "existing") and the adverbial suffix -(y)ken ("while"). When you attach -(y)ken to var, it simply means "while there is" or "when there is".
Why is there an -ü on the end of jeneratörü?
That is the accusative case suffix. The verb çalıştırmak needs a direct object. Because you are turning on a specific, known generator (rather than just any random generator), it requires the definite accusative ending.