Valide Hanım, cüzdanını kaybettiğini fark ettiğinde büyük panik yaşamıştı.

cüzdanını = cüzdan + -ı (3rd-person possessive) + -nı (accusative case)

• cüzdan = “wallet”
• -ı = “his/her/its” (3rd-person singular possessive)
• -nı = accusative suffix marking a definite object

Because cüzdanı ends in a vowel, Turkish inserts a buffer consonant n before the next suffix. So cüzdanı + -nı → cüzdanını, literally “her wallet” as the object of the verb.

kaybettiğini = kaybet + -ti + -ğ + -i

• kaybet = “to lose” (root)
• -ti = past-tense marker (“she lost”)
• -ğ = buffer consonant for attaching the next suffix
• -i = accusative case marker

Together kaybet-ti-ği-ni turns “lose” into a noun clause in the accusative: “that she lost (it).” This clause is the direct object of fark etmek (“to realize”).

fark etmek means “to realize” or “to notice.”
To say “when she realized,” Turkish uses a temporal conjunction suffix:

1. Start with the verb root fark et (“realize”)
2. Add -ti (past tense → etti)
3. Add -ğinde (meaning “when”)

So fark ettiğinde literally = “when she realized”.

You could say kaybettiğinde, but that denotes the exact moment the wallet slipped away. The sentence describes the moment she became aware of the loss, not the physical moment of dropping it.

• kaybettiğinde = “when she lost it”
• fark ettiğinde = “when she realized (that she had lost it)”

The panic happens at awareness, so fark ettiğinde is more precise.

Turkish has two common past forms here:

• yaşadı = simple past (“she experienced/past tense”)
• yaşamıştı = past perfect or “had experienced”

By using yaşamıştı, the speaker sets the panic as a background event relative to her moment of realization. It emphasizes that by the time she realized the loss, she had already plunged into a big panic. Simple past could work, but -mıştı adds that pluperfect nuance.

Literally:

• büyük = “big”
• panik = “panic”
• yaşamak = “to live” or “to experience”

In Turkish, yaşamak often pairs with nouns of emotion or experience:
• korku yaşamak = “to experience fear”
• heyecan yaşamak = “to feel excitement”
• panik yaşamak = “to panic”

So büyük panik yaşamak idiomatically means “to freak out” or “to have a major panic”.

Yes, though panik yaşamak is the most common. Others include:

• panik olmak (understood, but less idiomatic)
• panik atak geçirmek (“to have a panic attack”)
• birden panik yaşamak (“to suddenly panic”)

But you wouldn’t normally say panik geçirmek on its own—stick with panik yaşamak or the set phrase panik atak geçirmek.

Common alternatives:
• farkına varmak (literally “to reach one’s awareness”)
• anlamak (to understand; sometimes used as “to realize,” but more intellectual)
• idrak etmek (formal, “to comprehend/realize”)

Nuance:

• fark etmek focuses on becoming aware of a perception.
• farkına varmak is very close and often interchangeable.
• anlamak is about understanding meaning, not just noticing.