Breakdown of Sadece susmakla hiçbir işe yaramıyorsun.
iş
work
susmak
to be quiet / to stop talking
ile
with / by / and (linking nouns)
sadece
only, just
hiçbir
no / not any (determiner)
yaramak
to be of use / to serve a purpose
Questions & Answers about Sadece susmakla hiçbir işe yaramıyorsun.
How does susmakla translate to "by keeping quiet"?
It combines the infinitive susmak (to keep quiet) with the instrumental suffix -la (with/by). Adding ile or its suffix form -(y)lA to an infinitive verb creates a phrase that shows the method or means by which something happens. Here, the method is "by keeping quiet".
Is it possible to write susmak ile as two separate words?
Yes, you can write susmak ile, but it is much more natural and common to attach it as a suffix. When attached to a word ending in a consonant, it becomes -la or -le based on vowel harmony. Since susmak has a back vowel (a), it takes -la to become susmakla.
What is the exact literal meaning of işe yaramıyorsun?
It comes from the idiom işe yaramak, which literally means "to be of use to a job" or "to serve a purpose". Broken down, iş means "work/job", -e is the dative suffix meaning "to", and yaramak means "to be useful". Conjugated here, yara-mıyor-sun means "you are not being useful".
Why is the verb yaramıyorsun negative when the English translation says "of no use"?
This is because of the word hiçbir (not any / no). In Turkish, negative adjectives and pronouns like hiçbir require the main verb of the sentence to also be negative. It is a double negative that functions as a single negative, so hiçbir işe yaramıyorsun literally translates to "you are not being useful to any work".
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