Learn Turkish: Dostluğumuza zarar vermemek üzere bu kitabı sana ödünç veriyorum. - I am lending this book to you on the condition of not damaging our friendship.

Dostluğumuza zarar vermemek üzere bu kitabı sana ödünç veriyorum.

I am lending this book to you on the condition of not damaging our friendship.

Breakdown of Dostluğumuza zarar vermemek üzere bu kitabı sana ödünç veriyorum.

Questions & Answers about Dostluğumuza zarar vermemek üzere bu kitabı sana ödünç veriyorum.

How does vermemek üzere mean "on the condition of not"? I thought -mAk üzere meant "about to".

You are right that -mAk üzere usually means "about to". However, it has a second common use: setting a condition or a proviso. When used this way, it translates to "on the condition that" or "provided that". Here, combined with the negative infinitive vermemek, it sets the condition: "provided we do not harm".

Why does dostluğumuza take the dative case (-a) instead of the accusative case?

The phrase for "to damage" or "to harm" in Turkish is zarar vermek, which literally translates to "to give harm". Because you are "giving" harm to something, the receiver of the harm must take the dative (direction) case. So, "to our friendship" becomes dostluğumuza.

Can you break down the suffixes on the word dostluğumuza?

The root is dostluk (friendship). First, we add the first-person plural possessive suffix -umuz (our), which causes the final k to soften into a ğ to make dostluğumuz. Then, we add the dative case marker -a (to), resulting in dostluğumuza (to our friendship).

How does the word ödünç work with veriyorum here?