Toplantı kırk dakika sürdü.

Here, sürdü means lasted.

The verb is sürmek, and one of its common meanings is to last / to continue for a period of time.

So in this sentence, Toplantı kırk dakika sürdü means that the meeting continued for a total duration of forty minutes.

The dictionary form is sürmek.

This sentence uses the past tense form:

• sürmek = to last
• sürdü = lasted

So the verb stem is sür-, and the past ending is added to it.

Because Turkish past tense endings follow vowel harmony.

The past tense suffix has several forms, such as:

• -dı
• -di
• -du
• -dü

The last vowel in sür- is ü, so the matching form is -dü.

That gives:

• sür + dü = sürdü

This is a very common pattern in Turkish.

It is the simple past tense.

This tense is often used for completed events in the past. In this sentence, the meeting is understood as a finished event, and its duration is given.

So sürdü tells you that the action is over and happened in the past.

Yes. Toplantı is the subject.

It is in the nominative form, with no extra case ending. The sentence structure is:

• Toplantı = the meeting
• kırk dakika = forty minutes
• sürdü = lasted

So the meeting is the thing that lasted.

Turkish does not have articles like the or a/an in the same way English does.

So toplantı can mean:

• meeting
• the meeting

Which meaning is intended depends on context. In a sentence like this, English usually translates it as the meeting lasted forty minutes, but Turkish does not need a separate word for the.

In Turkish, after a number, the noun normally stays singular.

So:

• bir dakika = one minute
• iki dakika = two minutes
• kırk dakika = forty minutes

English uses plural after numbers greater than one, but Turkish usually does not. So kırk dakikalar would sound wrong in normal usage.

Because this phrase expresses duration.

In Turkish, expressions of duration often appear without an extra case ending:

• iki saat sürdü = it lasted two hours
• üç gün bekledim = I waited three days
• kırk dakika sürdü = it lasted forty minutes

So kırk dakika is functioning as a time-duration expression, not as a direct object.

Because Turkish normally prefers Subject + Object/Other Elements + Verb order, with the verb often placed at the end.

So:

• Toplantı = subject
• kırk dakika = duration expression
• sürdü = verb

This is the most neutral and natural order.

English usually puts the verb earlier: The meeting lasted forty minutes. Turkish usually saves the verb for the end.

Yes, Turkish word order is flexible, but the neutral version is Toplantı kırk dakika sürdü.

A different order can shift emphasis. For example:

• Kırk dakika sürdü toplantı can sound marked or poetic
• Toplantı sürdü kırk dakika is not the normal neutral order

For learners, the safest pattern is to keep the verb at the end.

No. Sürmek has several meanings, depending on context.

Some common ones are:

• to last
• to continue
• to drive
• to spread/apply something on a surface

So context matters a lot.

In Toplantı kırk dakika sürdü, the meaning is clearly to last, because the sentence gives a duration.

Yes, you could.

• Toplantı kırk dakika sürdü = The meeting lasted forty minutes
• Toplantı kırk dakika boyunca sürdü = The meeting lasted for forty minutes / throughout forty minutes

The version without boyunca is very natural and common.
Adding boyunca can make the duration feel slightly more explicit, but it is not necessary here.

Often yes, because the verb ending can show the person. But in this sentence, the subject is a noun, toplantı, and it is included because we need to say what lasted.

If the subject were already understood from context, Turkish sometimes omits it in other sentence types. But here, saying Toplantı makes the sentence clear and complete.

Using the same verb sürmek, you could say:

• Toplantı kırk dakika sürüyor. = The meeting is lasting forty minutes / The meeting has been going on for forty minutes, depending on context
• Toplantı kırk dakika sürecek. = The meeting will last forty minutes

So sürdü is specifically the past form of the verb.