Learn Hardcore Turkish: Dün yağmur yağdı ve park yolları çamurla kaplandı. - It rained yesterday and the paths in the park were covered in mud.

Literally yağmur yağdı is “rain rained.” In Turkish weather expressions you often name the precipitate (yağmur, kar, dolu…) as the subject and then use the verb yağmak (“to rain/snow/hail”). So yağmur is the noun “rain” and yağdı is the past‐tense form of yağmak, giving the English equivalent “it rained.”

In English we say “it rained.” Where is that it, and why isn’t there a dummy subject in Turkish?

Turkish doesn’t use dummy pronouns like English it for weather verbs. The noun (yağmur) itself acts as the subject, and intransitive subjects appear in bare form (nominative) without any extra ending. So there’s no separate “it”—the idea is contained by yağmur yağdı.

What tense and aspect do the suffixes -dı in yağdı and -dı in kaplandı indicate?

Both -dı endings mark the simple past (definite past). They tell you the action was completed at a specific time in the past. In yağdı we have yağ- (rain) + ‑dı (past). In kaplandı we have kaplan- (to be covered, passive stem) + ‑dı (past).

What is kaplandı, and how is it formed? Why not kapladı?

Kaplandı comes from the verb kaplanmak, which is the passive (or “reflexive”) form of kaplamak (“to cover”).

kaplamak → kaplan-mak → kaplan- (passive stem) → kaplandı (past).
If you said kapladı, that’s the active “(someone) covered (it),” not “(it) got covered.”

What does the -la in çamurla do?

That -la is the instrumental suffix meaning “with” or “by means of.” Çamurla kaplandı means “(it) was covered with mud.” You could also spell it çamur ile kaplandı, but suffixing -la is more colloquial.

Why does yolları in park yolları end with -ı? Is that a case ending?

No, -ı here is the third‐person singular possessive suffix, not a case marker. Park yolları literally means “the park’s paths.” You’re expressing possession: parkın (of the park) + yolları (its paths). Often the genitive -ın on the owner can be dropped when the possessor is a name or familiar noun, so we just say park yolları.

Could we instead say parkta yollar çamurla kaplandı? What’s the difference between park yolları and parkta yollar?

Yes, parkta yollar çamurla kaplandı is also correct and means “the roads in the park got covered with mud.”
• park yolları = “the park’s paths” (possession)
• parkta yollar = “paths in the park” (locative: -ta = “in/at”)
Both describe the same physical paths, but one uses a possessive construction, the other a location case.

Why is the verb always at the end, and is it okay to move dün (“yesterday”)?

Turkish is an SOV (subject–object–verb) language, so verbs typically come last. Adverbs like dün are flexible: you can say Dün yağmur yağdı (emphasizing “yesterday”) or Yağmur dün yağdı (emphasizing “it was rain that happened yesterday”). Both are grammatically correct; the focus just shifts slightly.