Learn Hardcore Turkish: Yağmur durunca gökkuşağı ortaya çıkıyor.

The suffix -ınca/-ince/-unca/-ünce attaches to verb stems to form a temporal clause meaning when/once/as soon as something happens. It indicates that as soon as the action in the subordinate clause finishes, the action in the main clause takes place. So yağmur durunca literally means when the rain stops.

What’s the difference between durunca, durduğunda, and durur durmaz?

All three create “when”-clauses but with slight nuance:

durunca expresses a general or habitual condition: “when it stops.”
durduğunda (using -dığında) is more neutral or refers to a specific event: “when it has stopped.”
durur durmaz means “no sooner does it stop” or “as soon as it stops,” emphasizing immediacy.

Why is durmak used to mean “stop raining”? I thought bitmek was “to end.”

In Turkish durmak can be used intransitively to mean to stop for ongoing actions, including natural phenomena like rain or traffic. So Yağmur durdu means “the rain has stopped.” bitmek also means “to finish” but is more common for events concluding their course. In weather contexts, durmak is more idiomatic.

What does ortaya çıkmak mean?

ortaya means “to/into the middle or front,” and çıkmak means “to go out/come out.” Together ortaya çıkmak is a fixed expression meaning to appear, to emerge, or to come into view. In this sentence, gökkuşağı ortaya çıkıyor = “a rainbow appears.”

Why is the verb in the present continuous (çıkıyor) and not simple present or past?

Turkish uses the present continuous (-yor suffix) not only for ongoing actions but also to express habits, general truths, and natural phenomena. Here, gökkuşağı ortaya çıkıyor conveys the regular pattern “whenever it stops raining, a rainbow appears.”

Why is there no article before gökkuşağı? Shouldn’t it be “a rainbow”?

Turkish doesn’t have an indefinite article like a in English. A bare noun often corresponds to both a/an and the depending on context. If you specifically want to emphasize “a rainbow,” you can say bir gökkuşağı, but it’s not required.

Can you say bir gökkuşağı ortaya çıkıyor instead?

Yes. bir (one/a) explicitly marks indefiniteness. Bir gökkuşağı ortaya çıkıyor means “a rainbow appears,” whereas without bir it still means the same but is more neutral.

How is the word gökkuşağı formed?

It’s a compound of gök (sky/heaven) + kuşak (belt/girdle). Literally sky belt, which came to mean rainbow.

Why is the word order yağmur durunca gökkuşağı ortaya çıkıyor? Can I change it?

Turkish word order is flexible (S-(T)-O-V). Here the subordinate clause yağmur durunca sets the scene, then gökkuşağı (subject), ending with the verb çıkıyor. You could say Gökkuşağı yağmur durunca ortaya çıkıyor, but that shifts the topic to the rainbow rather than the timing.

Why is it spelled durunca with u and not durınca with ı?

The suffix -ınca/-ince/-unca/-ünce follows four-way vowel harmony based on the last vowel of the root: • Roots with a → -ınca
• with e → -ince
• with o/u → -unca
• with ö/ü → -ünce
Since dur has u, the correct form is durunca.