Breakdown of Bu sıva işinin çok uzun sürdüğü yetmiyormuş gibi, çok para harcadık.
bu
this
uzun
long / tall
iş
work
çok
a lot of / many
para
money
harcamak
to spend (money, time)
gibi
like (similar to)
sürmek
to last / to take (time)
yetmek
to suffice, be enough
sıva
plaster (for walls)
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?
The -dIk ... yetmiyormuş gibi structure makes subject-switching easy. By bundling the entire first idea into a self-contained noun phrase ('the plaster job's lasting a long time'), it acts as a standalone condition. This leaves the main clause completely free to introduce a brand new subject for the final action (harcadık - we spent).
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