Learn Turkish: Keşke uzlaşmacı olsaydı ve projede mutabık kalsaydı. - I wish he had been conciliatory and had agreed on the project.

The compound verb mutabık kalmak (to agree) requires the locative case (-da / -de) for the topic being agreed upon. Just as we say 'agree on something' in English, Turkish uses the locative case to show where the agreement 'rests' or 'stays'. This is a lexical requirement of this specific verb.

What does mutabık kalmak mean literally?

Mutabık is a formal adjective of Arabic origin meaning 'agreed' or 'in agreement', and kalmak means 'to remain' or 'to stay'. Literally, it means 'to remain in agreement'. It is a highly common professional or formal way to say 'to agree' in Turkish.

We learned that keşke + -saydı can refer to a present or past unreal wish. How do we know this means 'had been' (past) rather than 'were' (present)?

The structure olsaydı (conditional -sa + past -ydı) is frequently used for both impossible present wishes ('I wish he were') and past regrets ('I wish he had been'). Context determines the timeline. If a speaker wants to explicitly stress that it happened in the past, they might use the pluperfect form olmuş olsaydı, but olsaydı alone is completely standard for past regrets too.

How is the adjective uzlaşmacı (conciliatory) formed?