Learn Turkish: Bu sıva işinin çok uzun sürdüğü yetmiyormuş gibi, çok para harcadık. - As if it weren't enough that this plaster job took a very long time, we spent a lot of money.

Word

Bu sıva işinin çok uzun sürdüğü yetmiyormuş gibi, çok para harcadık.

Meaning

As if it weren't enough that this plaster job took a very long time, we spent a lot of money.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Turkish

Lesson

As if it weren't enough (-dIğI yetmiyormuş gibi)

Breakdown of Bu sıva işinin çok uzun sürdüğü yetmiyormuş gibi, çok para harcadık.

Questions & Answers about Bu sıva işinin çok uzun sürdüğü yetmiyormuş gibi, çok para harcadık.

Why is işinin in the genitive case here?

The target structure uses the -dIk suffix, which turns an action into a noun phrase. To show what is doing the action, Turkish relies on a genitive-possessive relationship. Here, sıva işi (the plaster job) takes the genitive suffix -nin, which links to the possessive suffix -ü on sürdüğü. Literally, it translates to 'the plaster job's taking (a long time)'.

Could we use yetmezmiş gibi instead of yetmiyormuş gibi in this sentence?

Yes, they are essentially interchangeable. yetmiyormuş gibi uses the present continuous tense (-iyor) and feels slightly more focused on the ongoing frustration of this specific situation. yetmezmiş gibi uses the aorist tense (-er/-ar/-mez) and acts as a slightly more fixed, general idiom. Both effectively mean 'as if it weren't enough'.

The verb sürmek often means 'to drive' or 'to spread'. How does it mean 'took' here?

While sürmek does mean 'to drive' or 'to rub/spread on' (which is ironically fitting for a plastering job!), it has another very common meaning: 'to last' or 'to take time'. Whenever sürmek is paired with a duration, like uzun (long), kısa (short), or üç gün (three days), it always refers to how long an event lasts.

The sentence has two different subjects (the plaster job, and 'we'). How does the grammar handle this split?