Learn Hardcore Turkish: Eskiden bu mezar taşlarının üzerindeki yazılar net okunurmuş ama şimdi çoğu silinmişti. - In the past, the inscriptions on these tombstones were clearly visible, but now most had worn away.

Eskiden is an adverb meaning “formerly” or “in the old days.” It sets the temporal context and refers to a time in the narrator’s past. In Turkish, such time-adverbs typically go at the beginning of the sentence to establish “when” something was true.

How is bu mezar taşlarının üzerindeki yazılar constructed, and what does each part mean?

Breakdown of bu mezar taşlarının üzerindeki yazılar:

bu: “these” (demonstrative)
mezar taşı: “tombstone” (compound noun: mezar “grave” + taşı “stone”)
-ları: plural suffix on taş → taşları = “tombstones”
-nın: genitive suffix on taşları → taşlarının = “of the tombstones”
üzerindeki: “on top of them” (see next question)
yazılar: “writings/inscriptions”

Together: “the inscriptions on these tombstones.”

What is the suffix -ki in üzerindeki, and why is it used here?

üzerindeki = üzerinde (“on top of”) + -ki (relative adjective suffix). The -ki turns the locative phrase into an adjective clause modifying yazılar, so you get “the writings that are on them.” Without -ki, you’d need a longer clause like üzerinde olan yazılar.

Could you say üstündeki instead of üzerindeki?

Yes, üstündeki also means “on top of it/them.” The difference is subtle:

üzerindeki often emphasizes the surface (“right on the surface of”).
üstündeki can emphasize the position above or on.
In many contexts they’re interchangeable, but üzerindeki is more idiomatic for “inscriptions on a stone’s face.”

What does net mean in net okunurmuş, and why is an English-looking word used?

net here is a loanword from French (“net” = “clear”). It works as an adjective/adverb meaning “clear(ly)” or “distinct(ly).” Turkish frequently borrows short adjectives or adverbs for emphasis—in this case, “clearly readable.”

Why is the form okunurmuş used instead of simple past okunurdu or present okunur?

okunurmuş breaks down as:

oku (stem “to read”)
-n (passive suffix → “be read” i.e. “be legible”)
-ur (aorist, habitual meaning “can be read” or “is readable”)
-muş (evidential/hearsay past indicating “apparently was” or “it’s said that it was”)

So okunurmuş means “it was apparently readable” or “they used to say you could read it clearly.”

okunur alone would be “it is/can be read” (habitual/present).
okunurdu would be the simple past habitual (“it used to be readable”) without the hearsay nuance.

What nuance does -muş add to the past in okunurmuş and silinmişti?

The suffix -mış/-miş/-muş/-müş marks evidential or reported information (you didn’t witness it).

In okunurmuş, it says “I heard / they say / apparently it was readable.”
In silinmişti, combined with -ti, it can also carry an inferential or pluperfect sense: “by that past moment, it had already been erased” or “they must have been erased (I can see no inscriptions now).”

Why is silinmişti used here instead of the simple past silindi?

silinmek = “to be erased/disappear.”

silindi (simple past) would state “they were erased.”
silinmişti (evidential + past tense) often implies “they had already been erased by that time” or “it appears/it’s evident that they were erased,” matching the narrator’s inference on visiting the site.

What does çoğu refer to in şimdi çoğu silinmişti?

çoğu means “most (of them).” Here it picks up its antecedent yazılar (“inscriptions”). So “now most of them had been erased.”

How can şimdi (“now”) be used with silinmişti (past)? Isn’t “now” present?

In narrative Turkish, şimdi often refers to the “present moment” of the story’s timeline, which is still in the past relative to your reading. silinmişti then tells us that by that story-present, the inscriptions were already gone. So “but now (at that moment) most had already disappeared.”

Why does mezar taşlarının carry -larının rather than just -lar?

-lar marks the plural (taşlar = “stones”).
-ın then marks the genitive case because üzerindeki (“on top of …”) requires its noun to be in genitive.
We attach plural and case suffixes only to the last word of a compound. Hence:
mezar taşı → mezar taşları (tombstones) → mezar taşlarının (of the tombstones).