Breakdown of Kaybetmek pahasına ayrılırdık, yeter ki bağımsız olsak.
olmak
to be
kaybetmek
to lose
ayrılmak
to leave (depart, separate)
bağımsız
independent
Questions & Answers about Kaybetmek pahasına ayrılırdık, yeter ki bağımsız olsak.
How does the grammar of kaybetmek pahasına work? Do I need to add any suffixes to the verb before pahasına?
No extra suffixes are needed here! To say 'at the cost of doing something', you use the standard full infinitive form of the verb (kaybetmek) directly before the postposition pahasına. You don't need to add a genitive or possessive suffix to the verb when the subject taking the risk is the same as the main subject.
Why is the conditional suffix -sa used in olsak after yeter ki?
The phrase yeter ki translates to 'as long as' or 'provided that'. Because it introduces a condition or strict requirement, the verb that follows it is almost always put into the conditional mood using -sa or -se. Therefore, 'as long as we were independent' is expressed as yeter ki bağımsız olsak.
In ayrılırdık, we have the aorist and the past tense combined (-ır-dı-k). Why does this translate to 'we would leave'?
The aorist past tense (-IrdI) is the standard way to express what 'would' happen in a hypothetical scenario. In this sentence, the required condition is set by yeter ki bağımsız olsak, and ayrılırdık acts as the hypothetical result of that condition.
Could the yeter ki clause come at the beginning of the sentence instead?