Someone's got egg on his face... Peri and I were watching the family drama TV series Yaprak Dökümü (Shedding Leaves) last night when the younger teenaged sister of the TV-family said to her older married sister (something like): If I win the Lotto, I'll buy you a new car. The older sister countered (something like): You shouldn't make promises you can't keep. And the younger sister quickly qualified her generosity, saying: "If"... I said... "if!" And a light-bulb lit up in my head. To express the idea of: "If"... I said... "if!" in Turkish, the younger sister had used: "Eğer"...dedim..."eğer!" And...that usage is an exception to the rule that I declared 10 years ago about eğer (which you can still see in its original form) on our page entitled An 'iffy' Proposition #1. But, an exception doesn't prove a rule, it negates the rule. So, it's time we update that 'iffy Proposition Rule to include the exception... In An 'iffy' Proposition #1 we originally said: "The Turkish word eğer does not mean 'if' -- as every bi-lingual dictionary and grammar book says it does." And, in an adventuresome mood, we went further out on a limb to say, "You will never see or hear eğer by itself -- in any correct Turkish sentence." But, as the perfectly good usage of eğer in the Yaprak Dökümü TV-series episode so clearly demonstrates, we waxed too bold... Because, in the case where eğer is used for the purpose of making a comment about the word itself, it most certainly can mean 'if' -- and, furthermore, it most certainly can be used by itself... in that case. While the Yaprak Dökümü usage-example is a 'special case', it still warrants an acknowledgement (as we provide here). Likewise, we'll add a "No Exceptions to the Rule" link to the 'iffy' Proposition #1 Page back to this 'update' page -- just to keep the record straight. In the process, I'll also wipe the egg off my face. "The usual rule in grammar is that fundamental principles progress towards corruption and decay, never the reverse. Unless this one proves to be an exception..." JM after Michael Quinion