Breakdown of İyi ki o binadan çıktık, başka kurtuluş yoktu.
o
that / he / she / it
yok
there is not / non-existent
bina
building
çıkmak
to go out / to leave / to exit / to break out / to arise (of a storm)
Questions & Answers about İyi ki o binadan çıktık, başka kurtuluş yoktu.
How does iyi ki work in this sentence?
İyi ki translates to "fortunately" or "it's a good thing that." It acts as an evaluative marker showing the speaker's relief. In Turkish, it is very straightforward to use: you simply put it at the start of the clause, and the verb that goes with it just takes a regular, finite tense. Here, it is followed directly by the simple past tense verb çıktık (we left).
Why does the word for building have the -dan suffix in binadan?
The verb çıkmak (to leave, to exit, to go out) requires the ablative case, which is the -dan or -den suffix meaning "from." While in English you say "we left the building," in Turkish you literally say "we exited from the building."
Is the noun kurtuluş (escape) related to a verb?
Yes, it comes from the verb kurtulmak, which means "to escape" or "to be saved." By adding the verbal noun suffix -uş to the stem kurtul-, it turns into the noun kurtuluş, meaning "escape" or "salvation."
Why use yoktu instead of just yok?