Breakdown of Topluluk önünde şarkı söylemekten çekiniyorum.
şarkı
song
söylemek
to say, to sing
ön
front
topluluk
community / public (group, gathering)
çekinmek
to shy away / to hesitate
önünde
in front of
Questions & Answers about Topluluk önünde şarkı söylemekten çekiniyorum.
Why do we add the ablative ending -ten to the verb söylemek?
This relates directly to the verb çekinmek (to hesitate, to hold back). In Turkish, you hesitate from doing something. Therefore, çekinmek always requires its object to take the ablative case (-dAn/-tAn). To say you hesitate to sing, you attach the ablative suffix right onto the infinitive verbal noun: söylemek + -ten = söylemekten.
How does topluluk önünde mean "in public"?
Topluluk means "crowd," "community," or "society." Önünde means "in front of." So, topluluk önünde literally translates to "in front of a crowd," which is the natural and most common way to express doing something "in public" in Turkish.
Can we break down the word önünde? What is the -n- doing in the middle?
The base word is ön (front). Because we are forming a compound noun phrase meaning "the crowd's front," it takes the 3rd person possessive suffix -ü to become önü. Whenever you add a case ending like the locative -de (in/at) to a word that ends in a 3rd person possessive suffix, Turkish requires the buffer letter -n-. This builds ön + ü + n + de.
Why is şarkı in its bare form rather than the accusative şarkıyı?
The speaker is talking about the general activity of singing, not singing a specific song. In Turkish, general, indefinite direct objects do not take the accusative case. Furthermore, şarkı söylemek (literally "to say song") is treated as a set phrase for the verb "to sing."
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