Ormandaki patikanın kenarında gizlenmiş bir tuzak vardı.

There was a trap hidden on the edge of the forest trail.

Breakdown of Ormandaki patikanın kenarında gizlenmiş bir tuzak vardı.

• bir: a
• var: to have
• orman: the forest
• -nın: of
• -daki: in
• patika: the trail
• kenar: the edge
• -nda: on
• gizlenmek: to hide oneself
• -miş: (past participle)
• tuzak: the trap

Questions & Answers about Ormandaki patikanın kenarında gizlenmiş bir tuzak vardı.

Why does ormandaki have the suffix -daki instead of just -da?

The ending -daki is actually -da (locative “in/at”) plus the relativizer -ki (“that is…”). Together, ormandaki patika literally means “the path that is in the forest,” or more naturally, “the path in the forest.”

Why is patika marked as patikanın here?

In Turkish, when one noun possesses another, the possessor takes the genitive suffix -ın/-(s)ın/-(ı)n. So patika becomes patikanın to mean “of the path.” This shows that kenar (“edge”) belongs to the path.

Can you break down kenarında into its component morphemes and explain each?

kenar (edge)

• -ı (3rd person singular possessive “its”)
• -nda (locative “at/on”)
  = kenarında = “at its edge,” i.e., “at the edge of it” (here, “edge of the path”).

What type of participle is gizlenmiş, and how is it formed?

gizlenmiş is a past passive/resultative participle. The verb gizlenmek means “to hide oneself” or “to be hidden.” You take the verb root gizlen- and add -miş to form the participle “hidden.” Hence gizlenmiş bir tuzak = “a trap that has been hidden” (or simply “a hidden trap”).

What does vardı mean in this context, and how does var differ from olmak?

var expresses existence (“there is/are”), and its past tense is vardı (“there was”). It’s different from olmak, which is the general verb “to be” or “to become.” Use var when you want to say that something exists or is present somewhere.

Why is bir used before tuzak, and what does it indicate?

bir functions like the English indefinite article “a/an” (and also means “one”). Here it marks tuzak as nonspecific: bir tuzak = “a trap.” It tells us there was some trap, not a particular known one.

Why does the verb vardı appear at the end of the sentence?

Turkish generally follows a topic-comment or SOV (subject-object-verb) order, placing the verb at the end. In this case, the entire phrase Ormandaki patikanın kenarında gizlenmiş bir tuzak is the topic, and vardı (“there was”) completes the thought.