Lesson 18 — Gideceği için mi? Because he’s leaving?

1geldiğim için: “because” without çünkü

In Course 1’s Lesson 25 you learned to answer “why?”: Bugün gelemiyorum, çünkü hastayım, “I can’t come today because I’m ill.” çünkü sits where “because” does: after what happened, before the reason. That lesson’s bu yüzden puts the reason first, as a sentence of its own. There’s a third way too: the reason goes inside the sentence itself, in front of what came of it. That lesson left it alone. Today it’s yours.

You know both parts. -⁠dık with a possessive ending you’ve had since Lesson 7, and Lesson 13 made “that” out of it: geldiğini biliyorum, “I know you came”. Other words have followed it before: başladığımdan beri, “since I started”, geldiğim zaman in Lesson 16, “when I…”. Now it’s Course 1 Lesson 25’s için, and together they make “because”:

Two sentences to start with, ones you’ll say in your first week at work. The reason comes first, and “sorry” and “thank you” at the end:

In English that’s “I’m sorry I…” and “thank you for…”, with no “because” anywhere. In Turkish it’s the same için: what you’re sorry for, or thankful for, is a reason too.

The possessive ending says who was late, as in Lesson 13. All six:

The negative is -⁠ma before -⁠dık, as ever. And -⁠dık here isn’t only about the past: in the second example, he doesn’t speak Turkish now either. The words round it tell you when:

Where there’s no verb, olmak steps in, as olduğunu did in Lesson 13: hastayım → hasta olduğum için. Here’s Course 1 Lesson 25’s sentence without its çünkü, the reason now inside it:

var and yok go through olmak too: olduğu and olmadığı. The subject with them, as in Lesson 13, has no -⁠ın:

When the reason has a subject of its own, in the examples here it stays as it is too, with no genitive, like Lesson 16’s Kerem geldiğinde:

And -⁠acak is for what will be, or is planned, as in Lesson 13 again:

And like çünkü, a reason like this can answer “why?” all by itself, with no second half:

2-⁠dığı için or -⁠mak için: “because” or “in order to”

In Course 1’s Lesson 25, için after -⁠mak meant “in order to”: görmek için. TDK’s dictionary gives için both meanings: its first is amacıyla, “with the aim of”, its third -⁠den dolayı, “because of”. Which one you’ve got depends on what comes before için: -⁠mak means a goal, -⁠dık or -⁠acak a reason. All three sentences are about going to bed early:

Here the first two are nearly the same. In the first, getting up early is the goal; in the second, it’s the reason, the plan for the morning. The third is something else again: the early start has already happened.

-⁠ması için, “so that he…”, splits the same way. In Course 1’s Lesson 25, Efe was put to bed like this: Efe’nin uyuması için ışığı kapattık, “We turned the light off so Efe could sleep.” If he’s already asleep, the light goes off for another reason. Efe’nin with -⁠ması is in the genitive, as it was; in the reason, as in section 1, Efe stays as it is:

Now the question in the lesson’s title. mı goes, as in Course 1’s Lesson 2, straight after whatever you’re asking about: here, after için. You’re no longer asking what happened, but why:

And değil in the same place rules the reason out, and you can give the real one beside it:

3geldiğinden dolayı: the same “because”, with -⁠dan

Instead of için you can use the ablative: geldiğim için → geldiğimden. In the examples here it means the same. After the third person’s -⁠dığı, a buffer n comes in before -⁠dan; you saw it in Lesson 13, in geleceğinden eminim:

sen and o sound alike, geldiğinden, just as geldiğinde did in Lesson 16: the words round it tell you who. After -⁠dan you can add dolayı or ötürü. TDK’s dictionary explains each by the other: dolayı sends you to ötürü, and ötürü is bir şeyden dolayı, bir şey yüzünden, “because of a thing, on account of a thing”. In the examples here they don’t change the meaning:

And after a plain noun, with no -⁠dık at all: yağmurdan dolayı, “because of the rain”. That’s Course 1 Lesson 25’s yağmur yüzünden: TDK’s dictionary explains yüzünden as -⁠den ötürü too:

That lesson said yüzünden is usually for something bad. With dolayı, in the examples here, the reason can be a good one too:

Careful: -⁠dığından and -⁠acağından aren’t always a reason. If a word nearby asks for the ablative, it’s that word’s case: emin in Lesson 13, korkmak in Lesson 15. And with Lesson 7’s beri it’s “since”:

The word next door gives it away: emin, korkmak, beri. In this lesson’s examples, if nothing nearby is asking for the -⁠dan, you’re looking at a reason.

4tanıştığımıza memnun oldum: a feeling and its reason

In Course 1’s very first lesson, Ayşe said: Benim adım Ayşe. Memnun oldum!, “My name is Ayşe. Nice to meet you!” In that course’s Lesson 13 you took it apart as the past tense, literally “I became pleased”. Pleased with what? Here’s the whole sentence:

-⁠dık, a possessive and the dative -⁠a. Here memnun olmak asks for the dative, like sevinmek in Lesson 13: Geldiğinize çok sevindim, “I’m so glad you came.” There we read it as “that”. But what you’re glad about is also why you’re glad. TDK’s dictionary defines memnun just that way: herhangi bir olaydan veya durumdan ötürü sevinç duyan, “feeling joy because of some event or situation”. “Pleased with someone” takes -⁠dan: senden memnunum, “I’m pleased with you”.

Here are five verbs like that, and in this lesson they all have the reason in the dative: sevinmek and memnun olmak, to be glad, üzülmek, to be sorry or upset, kızmak from Lesson 15, to get cross, and pişman olmak, to regret what you did:

In the last one the subject, kimse, is in the genitive, kimsenin, like Lesson 13’s Kerem’in geldiğini.

You’ve known pişman since Lesson 4: Bu işe pişman mısın? — Hayır, hiç pişman değilim, “Do you regret taking this job? — No, not one bit.” There the dative came after a noun; now it comes after -⁠dık:

And with -⁠acak, for what’s still to come: -⁠acağına:

With pişman there’s also a doubled form: the same verb twice, with -⁠dığına and with -⁠acağına. Word for word, “I regretted what I said and what I’ll say.” Here, in English, you’d say:

5One reason, five ways

Here’s one reason, said five ways. The first two are from Course 1’s Lesson 25:

çünkü and bu yüzden join two whole sentences. With -⁠dığı için and -⁠dığından the reason moves inside one, in front of what came of it. You’ll meet -⁠dığından dolayı again in the Reading, in a formal e-mail.

7Dialogue: the office is buzzing

The twenty-fourth of September, the last Wednesday of the month, morning at the office. Tolga Bey has been gone two days. And yesterday Defne saw him on the engineers’ site: the engineers he kept goal for, until Zehra Hanım hired him.

dedikodu yapmak is to gossip. And Tolga Bey’in kulakları çınlasın is literally “may Tolga Bey’s ears ring”. TDK’s dictionary explains it: konuşulan yerde bulunmayan, sevilen biri anıldığında söylenen bir söz, said when someone you’re fond of, who isn’t there, is mentioned. In English, his ears must be burning. geri istemişler is Course 1 Lesson 18’s -⁠mış: Defne is passing on a rumour. The conversation is full of reasons, all from this lesson: olmadığı için with yok, kuru olmadığı için about the past, and section 2’s Gideceği için mi? and Gideceği için değil. kaleye geçmek is to go in goal, and gol yemek, literally “to eat a goal”, is to let one in. And Kerem regrets his Giderse gitsin! with the doubled form.

8Reading

That afternoon an e-mail comes for Zehra Hanım from Serkan, captain of the engineers’ football team. It’s formal: Sayın at the top and Saygılarımla at the bottom, like Nilay Hanım’s report in Lesson 9. Its reasons aren’t only in için, but in -⁠dığından dolayı too. Read it through; open a translation only where you’re stuck.

bıraktığımıza pişmanız is “we regret letting…”: the ending for “we” goes straight onto pişman, while in Lesson 4’s hiç pişman değilim the ending for “I” sat on değil. kaybedeceğimizden korkuyoruz is section 3’s trap: that -⁠dan is there for korkmak. You could have seen İşte kaleci eli! coming: in Lesson 16, Tolga Bey was coming up the stairs with his tea and took the extinguisher without putting the glass down: Ben kaleciyim: iki elimi de kullanırım, “I’m a goalkeeper: I use both hands.” And in the last lines hatır means both things at once: memory, and regard.

9The lesson’s new words

These are the words the lesson brought in for the first time, in the order you met them. Forms with -⁠dığı için and -⁠dığına of verbs you know aren’t here: you can build those yourself. Nor are the words inside TDK’s definitions.

This lesson’s words as flashcards →

10Say it yourself

Out loud first, then the answer. For each one, ask yourself: is it a reason or a feeling? And so what comes after -⁠dık: için, -⁠dan or -⁠a? Getting it wrong and then checking is exactly what this is for.

11Check yourself

Six items. A miss shows you the right answer straight away, and why.

12Homework

Two to say aloud, three to write. Write by hand or in your phone’s notes, then read it aloud: the ear finds what the eye let through.