Breakdown of Hiçbiri pes etmez, yeter ki onurlarını korusalar.
pes etmek
to give up (surrender, admit defeat)
korumak
to protect
hiçbiri
none of them
yeter ki
as long as / provided that (on the condition that)
Questions & Answers about Hiçbiri pes etmez, yeter ki onurlarını korusalar.
Why do we use the conditional -sa after yeter ki in this sentence?
The phrase yeter ki means "provided that" or "as long as." It introduces a condition that must be met. Combining it with the conditional suffix -sa (as in korusalar, "if they protect") emphasizes that this is a hypothetical but absolute requirement for the first action to hold true.
Why does the first verb (etmez) end in singular, but the second verb (korusalar) end in plural?
The pronoun hiçbiri (none of them) is grammatically singular in Turkish, so it requires the 3rd-person singular verb pes etmez. However, because the underlying meaning refers to a plural group of people ("them"), the speaker naturally switches to the 3rd-person plural -lar in korusalar for the second half of the thought.
Can you break down the suffixes in onurlarını?
The root is onur (honor). We add -ları (their) to get onurları (their honor). Because it is the specific direct object of korumak (to protect), it needs the accusative case -ı. When adding any case ending to a 3rd-person possessive suffix, Turkish always requires the buffer letter -n-, resulting in onurlarını.
Why translate pes etmez as "will not give up" if it is in the aorist (simple present) tense?