Thank you, Henry. It´s nice to hear you follow my struggling. As for most people who learned English at school, I guess, English for me was just a means to express myself and I didn´t pay much attention to my mistakes. That was before. After I came to this site, I often wish I could express myself better in English, too. Fortunately there are plenty of chances to excercise in the net. When you have your afternoon cup of coffee sitting next to the computer you can always answer to some multiple choice excercises on English grammar. Nice and relaxing (at least compared to Turkish).

As for 2, maybe b.

If we had more employees, we would work more efficiently. Daha çok çalışanımız olsa, daha verimli bir şekilde çalışacaktık/çalışırdık.

Now let´s translate your sentence back to English:

Daha çok çalışanımız olsa, daha verimli bir şekilde çalışacaktık = If we had more employees, we were going to work more efficiently.

With "çalışırdık"; it gives more hypothetial meaning and with "çalışacaktık"; the speaker has some certainity in their mind (some real result based on an hypothetical condition. Or they are more certain about the result).

Sorry, they are many. But they are small. Time expressions mostly.

1. For the time being I´m living in a small town, but I hope to move soon. Șimdilik küçük bir şehirde yaşıyorum ama birazdan taşınmayı umuyorum.
2. She has been gone since yesterday. Dünkü günden beri gitmiş.
3. I´m going to Paris for two weeks. İki hafta için Paris’e gidiyorum.
4. My mother started work as a nurse in the 1960s. Annem 1960’larda hemşire olarak çalışmaya başladı.
5. In those days she lived in London. O günlerde Londra’da yaşıyordu.
6. Back then nurses were badly paid. O zaman hemşirelere kötü bir maaş ödendi.
7. At one time she lost her door key and had to stay in a hotel. Bir kerede kapının anahtarı kaybetip otelde kalmak zorundaydi.
9. I went shopping after I finished work. İş bittikten sonra çarşıya çıktım.
10. I played my new computer game but after a while I got bored with it. Yeni bilgisayar oyunumu oynadım ama bir müddetten sonra ondan sıkıldım.
11. The old man performed ablution before going to the mosque. Yaşlı adam camiye gitmeden önce aptes aldı.
12. The movie was showed from August to October. Film Ağustostan Ekime kadar gösterildi.
13. Later on I met some friends for pizza. Sonra arkadaşlarımla pizza için karşılaştım.
14. I waited for a while in the restaurant. Before long, the waiter came up and asked me if the dog barking outside was mine. Lokantada bir müddet bekledim. Yakında garson gidip bana dışarıda havlayan köpeğin benim olup olduğunu sordu.
15. Suddenly, I heard the door slam. Ansızın kapının çarptığını duydum.
16 At the same time my phone started to ring. Aynı zamanda telefonum çalmaya başladı.
17. The ex-president of France is still influential. Fransa’nın sabık başkanı daha da nüfuzludur.
18. A previous boss taught me how to make presentations. Eski bir patron bana sunuşlar yapmayı öğretti.
19. My late father painted watercolours. Merhum babam suluboya resimler yaptı.
20. I watch TV during the evening. Akşam süresince televizyon seyretirim.
21. We must finish the project within a year. Bir yıl içinde projeyi tamamlamalıyız.
22. There´s no time to lose. We´ve got to get going. İsraf etmek için zaman yok. Gitmemiz lazım.
23. We´ve run out of time on this project. Bu proje için zamanımız tükendi.
24. The UK is in a different time zone from the rest of Europe. Birleşik Krallık geri kalan Avrupadan ayrı zaman kuşağında bulunuyor.
25.They arrived just in time for the wedding. Düğün için tam zamanında gittiler.

Cheers!

Sağ olun, si++. I had better thank quickly before more mistakes are found.

Notes:

1. I can´t remember that I ever used lazım in its right place. Maybe there is no place for it?

2. patron bana...nasıl sunum yapılacağını öğretti: Can´t understand this correction. Could it be a misspelling? The dictionary gives sunuş, sunma for presentation.

3. olup olmadığını, olup olmadığını, olup olmadığını, olup olmadığını...: I hate to use emotions but this one really screams for one. Mixing gelmek and gitmek doesn´t shock me so much. (It´s just another way to see it.)

The Emperor´s Nightingale by Hans Christian Andersen, some cuts. I am aware that -miş-tense is often used in fairytales. As I didn´t know whether to use it everywhere or in some places only I just gave up and used simple past.

1. In China, you know, the emperor is a Chinese, and all those about him are Chinamen also. Çin’de bildiğiniz gibi imparator Çinli ve yakınındakilerin hepsi Çinliler.

2. The story I am going to tell you happened a great many years ago, so it is well to hear it now before it is forgotten. Size anlatmış olacağım masal çok yıldan beri oldu. Bu yüzden, unutulmadan önce onu şimdi duymak iyi olur.

3. In one of these trees lived a nightingale, who sang so beautifully that even the poor fishermen, who had so many other things to do, would stop and listen. Bu ağaçlardan birinde öyle güzelce öten bir bülbül yaşıyordu ki, hatta o kadar çok başka şey yapmaları gerekir olan yoksul balıkçılar durup dinlerdiler.

4. And the travellers, on their return home, related what they had seen; and learned men wrote books, containing descriptions of the town, the palace, and the gardens; but they did not forget the nightingale, which was really the greatest wonder. Ve yolcular eve geri dönerken neyi gördüklerini anlattılar. Ve bilgili adamlar şehir saray ve bahçelerin betimlemeleri içine alan kitaplar yazdılar. Ama gerçekten en büyük hayret olan bülbülü unutmadılar.

5. “There is a very wonderful bird mentioned here, called a nightingale,” said the emperor; “they say it is the best thing in my large kingdom. Why have I not been told of it?” İmparator “Harika bir  kuştan buna bahsetilir, bülbül denilen. Geniş krallığımdaki en iyi şey olmuş” dedi. “Bana onun hakkında hiç niye söylenmedi?”

6. “Is it possible?” said the lord-in-waiting, “I never imagined it would be a little, plain, simple thing like that. Uşak “Mümkün mü?” dedi. “Hiç onun öyle küçük, sade, basit bir şey olduğunu zannetmedim.”

7. The nightingale sang so sweetly that tears came into the emperor’s eyes, and then rolled down his cheeks, as her song became still more touching and went to every one’s heart. Bülbül o kadar tatlı bir şekilde öttü ki, gözyaşları imparatorun gözlerine gelip, bülbülün ötüşü daha da dokunaklı olup herkesin yüreğine gittiğinde, yanaklarından aşağıya yuvardılar.

8. The whole city spoke of the wonderful bird, and when two people met, one said “nightin,” and the other said “gale,” and they understood what was meant, for nothing else was talked of. Bütün şehir harika kuşa dair konuştu, ve iki insan karşılaştığında biri “bül” derken diğeri “bül” devam etti ve ikisi ne anlatılmak istendiğini anlattılar, çünkü başka hiç bir şey konuşulmadı.

9. Round its neck hung a piece of ribbon, on which was written “The Emperor of Japan’s nightingale is poor compared with that of the Emperor of China’s.” Boyunun etrafına “Japonya’nın imparatorun bülbülü Çin’inkiden daha kötüdür” diye yazıldığı kurdelenin parçası asılmış oldu.

10. And after this the real nightingale was banished from the empire, and the artificial bird placed on a silk cushion close to the emperor’s bed. Ve bundan sonra asli bülbül imparatorluktan sürgün edildi ama yalan kuş imparatorun yatağının yakınına ipekli bir yastığa koyuldu.

11. And as she sung, the shadows grew paler and paler; the blood in the emperor’s veins flew more rapidly, and gave life to his weak limbs; and even Death himself listened, and said, “Go on, little nightingale, go on.” Ve o ötüyorken, gölgeler gittikçe daha soluk oldu, imparatorun damarlarındaki kan daha hızla akıp zayıf uzuvlarına can verdi. Ölüm bile, onu dinleyip “Devam et, küçük bülbül, devam et” dedi.

12. “You must always remain with me,” said the emperor. “You shall sing only when it pleases you; and I will break the artificial bird into a thousand pieces.” İmparator “Hep benimle kalmalısın” dedi. “Ancak kendini memnun ettiği an ötebilirsin, ben yalan kuşu bin parçaya kıracağım.”

13. The servants now came in to look after the dead emperor; when, lo! there he stood, and, to their astonishment, said, “Good morning.” Uşaklar şimdi ölü imparatora bakmak için girdiler ve işte orada imparator kaim olup onları şaşırtarak “Günaydın” dedi.

(http://hca.gilead.org.il/nighting.html)

It was a quick check. So ... you know ... there may be some inaccuracies.

I thought it was so much crap no one wanted to see it. You just lightened the day. Sağ olun si++.

The motto of this week is “A native speaker can never imagine how many things there are for a learner to take into account before a proper Turkish sentence is done.” But it’s an enjoyable puzzle.

The corrections and improvements are mostly clear. Many of them I had thought of before making up my mind. A couple of notes only:

1. What is this? Geniş krallığımdaki en iyi şey olmuş oymuş” dedi.

2. “Japonya’nın imparatorun bülbülü Çin’inkiden daha kötüdür Çin imparatorununkiden daha zavallıdır” Can’t one ki stand for both imparator and bülbül?

3. taklit bir kuş imparatorun yatağının yakınına yakınındaki ipekli bir yastığa koyuldu/kondu. This seems clear to me: if there are two modifiers of place for one predicate, it’s good to change one of them into adjective attribute with –ki.

4. When the future form of a verb is a part of an idiom like for instance in

can’t it as such be used as a participle? 

Hi canım Abla. This is so true and I love trying to solve those puzzles too! Its like we are caught in a perpetual state of learning where we are trying to pick up little nuiances (and learn the rules) of a different language, in just this, the present time for us, however long its going to take. Where as a native speaker probably gets the first 10-14? years of their life to learn all the obvious as well as the subtle things from being immersed in the language. 

wow Abla, I am awed by how much thought you put into learning, I wish so much that Turkish was the only thing I had to work on and worry about, when I am not at work. I know I should finish my G. Design Associates degree, but more often than not, it has lately been slowing my progress in Turkish. Ive been tempted to give it up but I know I will keep going because ı also love to be creative.

I know that after I complete the degree, I could focus on Turkish more and maybe even take classes for it. But thats still maybe 1 or 2 years down the road. Still wish I could take classes with you Abla