Breakdown of Onlara teslim olmaya mecbur kalmayacağız.
o
that / he / she / it
kalmak
to stay / to be left / to remain (in a state)
mecbur
obliged
teslim olmak
to surrender
Questions & Answers about Onlara teslim olmaya mecbur kalmayacağız.
How exactly do the suffixes on olmaya connect it to mecbur kalmayacağız?
To state what action you are forced to do, mecbur kalmak (to be forced) requires the preceding word to be in the dative case. Here, we take the verb teslim olmak (to surrender), turn it into a noun using the short verbal noun suffix -ma, and then add the dative suffix -a (with the buffer letter -y-). It literally translates as being forced to the act of surrendering.
Why use kalmayacağız instead of olmayacağız here?
While mecbur olmak simply means "to be obliged," mecbur kalmak (literally "to remain obliged") means "to be left with no choice" or "to find oneself forced." It strongly highlights the situational pressure. Using kalmak in this sentence emphasizes that circumstances won't back us into a corner where we have to surrender.
There are two words ending in the dative case: onlara and olmaya. How do we know which verb they attach to?
They belong to two different verbs, and Turkish nests them logically. Onlara (to them) is the object required by teslim olmak (to surrender to someone). Olmaya is the dative object required by the main verb mecbur kalmak. You can think of it as one phrase tucked inside another: [ [onlara teslim olma] -ya mecbur kalmayacağız ].
If we wanted to say "We will be forced not to surrender", how would we change the negation in this sentence?
You would move the negative suffix from the main verb (kalmak) to the verbal noun (olmak). It would become onlara teslim olmamaya mecbur kalacağız (literally: we will remain forced to not surrendering). In our original sentence, negating the main verb means the obligation itself won't happen.
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