Learn Turkish: Biz kalkan kurmalıymışız, ne var ki hiçbir malzememiz yok. - Apparently we were supposed to build a shield, however we have no materials.

Ne var ki means "however," "nevertheless," or "the problem is that." It acts as a conjunction of contrastive reservation. While it translates similarly to ama (but), ne var ki usually carries a stronger sense of introducing a complication, obstacle, or unfortunate fact that blocks the previous statement. It is often used when presenting a plan or situation, followed by the catch.

Can you break down the suffixes in kurmalıymışız?

Sure! It is formed by kur (build/set up) + malı (should/must) + y (buffer) + mış (evidential past) + ız (we). The combination of the necessitative (-malı) and the evidential past (-mış) translates to "apparently we were supposed to" or "I gathered that we should." It shows an obligation that the speaker learned about indirectly or after the fact.

The English translation says "materials" (plural), so why is it malzememiz and not malzemelerimiz?

In Turkish, nouns following hiçbir (no / not a single / any) must remain strictly singular. So we say hiçbir malzememiz (literally "not any our material"), even though in English it is more natural to translate it as the plural "no materials."

Why is kurmak used for "to build" a shield here instead of yapmak?