Learn Turkish: Tam bıçak parmağımı sıyıracaktı ki elmayı düşürdüm. - The knife was just about to graze my finger when I dropped the apple.

This is a fixed pattern for interrupted actions or narrow escapes. Tam sets the stage meaning "just" or "exactly". Adding the future-in-the-past suffix -acaktı to the verb sıyırmak gives us "was going to graze". Finally, the conjunction ki links it to the sudden, interrupting event. Literally, it feels like: "Just as the knife was going to graze my finger, bam! I dropped the apple."

Why does düşürdüm mean "I dropped" instead of "I fell"?

The root verb for "to fall" is düşmek. To say "to drop" (meaning to make something fall), Turkish adds the causative suffix -ür, creating the verb düşürmek. If you said düştüm, it would mean "I fell", but düşürdüm means "I caused [it] to fall" or "I dropped [it]".

Let's break down parmağımı. Why are there two -ı vowels at the end?

The base word is parmak (finger). The first suffix is the possessive -ım ("my"), which triggers consonant mutation and softens the k to a ğ, making it parmağım. The second -ı is the accusative case marker, which is required because "my finger" is the specific direct object of the verb sıyırmak (to graze/skim).

Could we use a normal "when" clause like instead of here?