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Learn Hardcore Turkish: Bu evlilik uzun sürdü. - This marriage lasted a long time.

Hardcore Turkish
/Filing a consumer-arbitration application
/Bu evlilik uzun sürdü.

Bu evlilik uzun sürdü.

Word

Bu evlilik uzun sürdü.

Meaning

This marriage lasted a long time.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Hardcore Turkish

Lesson

Filing a consumer-arbitration application

Breakdown of Bu evlilik uzun sürdü.

Questions & Answers about Bu evlilik uzun sürdü.

What is the basic grammar of Bu evlilik uzun sürdü?

The sentence has three main parts:

Bu evlilik = the subject noun phrase
uzun = describes the duration
sürdü = the verb, in the past tense

A very natural gloss is:

Bu evlilik = this marriage
uzun sürdü = lasted a long time

Turkish normally puts the verb at the end, so this word order is very typical.

What does bu mean here?

Bu means this.

Here it is a demonstrative adjective, because it comes before a noun and modifies it:

bu evlilik = this marriage

It is not standing alone as a pronoun here. If it stood alone, it could mean this one.

Why is there no word for the or a?

Turkish does not have articles like English the and a/an.

So a noun like evlilik can mean marriage, a marriage, or the marriage, depending on context. In this sentence, bu already makes it specific:

bu evlilik = this marriage

So no separate word for the is needed.

Does evlilik mean marriage or wedding?

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Evlilik means marriage, not wedding.

That is an important distinction:

evlilik = marriage
düğün = wedding
evlenmek = to get married

So this sentence is about how long the marriage lasted, not how long the wedding ceremony lasted.

How is evlilik formed?

Evlilik is built from:

evli = married
-lik = a common suffix that forms nouns

So evlilik means something like the state/institution of being married, which is why it means marriage.

This is a useful pattern in Turkish: -lik / -lık / -luk / -lük often makes nouns from other words.

Why is uzun used here? Isn’t uzun an adjective meaning long?

Yes, uzun is basically an adjective meaning long. But in Turkish, adjectives can often also work adverbially without changing form.

So:

uzun bir yol = a long road
uzun sürdü = it lasted long / it lasted a long time

English usually needs something like for a long time, but Turkish can simply use uzun before sürmek.

Is uzun sürmek a common expression?

Yes, very common.

Uzun sürmek means to last a long time or to take a long time.

Examples:

Toplantı uzun sürdü. = The meeting lasted a long time.
Savaş uzun sürdü. = The war lasted a long time.

So in your sentence, uzun sürdü is a very natural combination.

What does sürdü come from?

Sürdü comes from the verb sürmek.

In this sentence, sürmek means to last, to continue, or to take time.

So:

sürmek = to last
sürdü = lasted

Be aware that sürmek has other meanings in other contexts too, such as to drive or to spread/apply, but here the meaning is clearly to last.

Why is it sürdü and not sürdi or sürdu?

Because of vowel harmony.

The past tense suffix in Turkish is written in dictionary form as -DI, but the vowel changes:

-dı
-di
-du
-dü

The last vowel in sür- is ü, so the correct form is -dü:

sür + dü = sürdü

That is why you get sürdü.

Why is the consonant d used in -dü instead of t?

The past tense suffix can appear as either -dI or -tI, depending on the sound before it.

Since sürmek has the stem sür-, and r is a voiced consonant, the suffix keeps d:

sür-dü

If the stem ended in a voiceless consonant, you would often get t instead.

So this is a normal sound rule in Turkish.

Why is the verb singular? Should there be some ending for this marriage?

In Turkish, a third-person singular verb often has no special personal ending beyond the tense marker.

The subject is already explicitly stated:

Bu evlilik = this marriage

So sürdü simply means it lasted / lasted in the third-person singular past.

English needs a subject like it, but Turkish does not need a separate dummy pronoun here because the noun phrase itself is the subject.

Can the word order change?

The most neutral order is:

Bu evlilik uzun sürdü.

That is the standard and safest version.

Turkish does allow some flexibility for emphasis, but the verb usually stays at the end. For example, a speaker might move things around in conversation for focus, but for learners, the normal pattern is best:

subject + other information + verb

So this sentence is a good model to follow.

Could I also say Bu evlilik çok uzun sürdü?

Yes. That would mean:

This marriage lasted a very long time

Adding çok strengthens uzun:

uzun sürdü = lasted a long time
çok uzun sürdü = lasted a very long time

Both are natural.

How would I say this in the negative or present tense?

A few useful variations are:

Bu evlilik uzun sürmedi. = This marriage did not last long.
Bu evlilik uzun sürüyor. = This marriage is lasting a long time / has been lasting a long time.

So the sentence you have is the past tense version.

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