Learn Turkish: Bu resmiyet size gereksiz görünebilir ama yönergeyi harfiyen uygulamak zorundayız. - This formality may seem unnecessary to you, but we must implement the directive strictly.

Word

Bu resmiyet size gereksiz görünebilir ama yönergeyi harfiyen uygulamak zorundayız.

Meaning

This formality may seem unnecessary to you, but we must implement the directive strictly.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Turkish

Lesson

Formal necessity (icap eden)

Breakdown of Bu resmiyet size gereksiz görünebilir ama yönergeyi harfiyen uygulamak zorundayız.

to implement / to apply

Questions & Answers about Bu resmiyet size gereksiz görünebilir ama yönergeyi harfiyen uygulamak zorundayız.

Why do we use görünebilir instead of just görebilir here?

Görmek means "to see," but adding the passive/reflexive suffix -in makes it görünmek, which means "to seem" or "to appear." When we add the possibility suffix -ebil and the aorist (broad time) suffix -ir, we get görünebilir meaning "it may seem."

Why does görünmek take the dative pronoun size?

In English, things "seem to" someone, and Turkish uses the exact same logic! The verb görünmek (to seem/appear) takes the dative case (-e/-a) to indicate who is experiencing the impression. So, size gereksiz görünebilir translates smoothly as "it may seem unnecessary to you."

The word harfiyen looks related to harf (letter). What is the -en ending?

You spotted the root perfectly! The -en or -an ending is an old Arabic suffix used to turn nouns into adverbs. You have probably seen it in other common words like tamamen (completely), kısmen (partially), or şahsen (personally). Here, harfiyen means "to the letter" or "strictly."

Could we say uygulamalıyız instead of uygulamak zorundayız?