Keder bazen sessiz geliyor.

Sorrow sometimes comes quietly.

Breakdown of Keder bazen sessiz geliyor.

• gelmek: to come
• bazen: sometimes
• keder: the sorrow
• sessiz: quiet, quietly

Questions & Answers about Keder bazen sessiz geliyor.

Why is there no article like a or the before keder?

Turkish does not have articles like a/an or the, so nouns usually appear without anything in front of them.

• keder is an abstract noun (sorrow, grief), and abstract nouns in Turkish are typically used bare:
  • keder, mutluluk (happiness), öfke (anger), korku (fear), etc.
• If you say bir keder, it becomes “a (certain/particular) sorrow,” which sounds more specific or poetic than neutral.

So Keder bazen sessiz geliyor is naturally understood as Sorrow sometimes comes quietly (or Grief sometimes comes quietly) without needing any article in Turkish. Context tells us whether it feels like the sorrow or sorrow in general in English.

What exactly does keder mean, and how is it different from üzüntü or hüzün?

All three are related to sadness, but they have different flavors:

• keder
  
  • Deep sorrow, grief, heartache.
  • Often associated with loss, pain, or a heavy emotional burden.
  • Slightly literary/poetic; not as common in everyday speech as üzüntü.
• üzüntü
  
  • General “sadness,” “distress,” or “worry.”
  • Neutral, very common in daily conversation.
  • Beni büyük bir üzüntü sardı = I was overwhelmed by great sadness.
• hüzün
  
  • Melancholy, a soft, bittersweet sadness, often with nostalgia.
  • Strong cultural/literary associations (e.g. with Istanbul, nostalgia, reflection).

In Keder bazen sessiz geliyor, keder suggests a fairly strong, heavy kind of sorrow, not just a passing bad mood.

Why is the verb geliyor (present continuous) used here instead of gelir (aorist/simple present)?

Both are grammatically possible, but they feel different:

• geliyor = present continuous/progressive
  
  • Emphasizes the action as something that happens in real time, as events that (can) unfold.
  • In emotional or literary contexts, it can sound more vivid and immediate, as if you can almost feel sorrow arriving.
• gelir = aorist/simple present
  
  • More like a general truth, habit, or timeless statement.
  • Keder bazen sessiz gelir sounds more like a proverb or general observation:
    
    • “Sorrow sometimes comes quietly” (as a general rule).

So:

• Keder bazen sessiz geliyor – “Sorrow is (the kind of thing that is) sometimes coming quietly,” with a more immediate, story-like or emotional tone.
• Keder bazen sessiz gelir – “Sorrow sometimes comes quietly,” more like a general saying or maxim.

Both are correct; the choice is mainly stylistic and about nuance.

Isn’t sessiz an adjective? Shouldn’t it be sessizce (quietly) to modify geliyor?

Yes, sessiz is an adjective (“silent, quiet”), and sessizce is the adverb (“quietly”). But Turkish is flexible here:

1. Predicate adjective with a verb of motion

   • sessiz can function as a kind of predicate describing the subject’s state while the verb happens.
   • Think of it like: “Sorrow sometimes comes (being) quiet.”
   • This is very natural in Turkish:
     • Çocuk mutlu geldi. = The child came (and was) happy.
     • Adam yorgun yürüyordu. = The man was walking (while) tired.

2. Manner adverb

   • sessizce focuses more clearly on how it comes (the manner):
     • Keder bazen sessizce geliyor. = Sorrow sometimes comes quietly (in a quiet way).

Nuance:

• Keder bazen sessiz geliyor.
  Slightly more about the state of the sorrow as it arrives (it is silent).
• Keder bazen sessizce geliyor.
  More obviously “in a quiet manner”; sounds a bit more explicit and maybe a bit more formal.

Both are correct; the original sentence is very natural and poetic with sessiz.

Can I change the word order? For example, can I say Bazen keder sessiz geliyor?

Yes, Turkish word order is flexible, and changing it changes the emphasis:

• Keder bazen sessiz geliyor.

  • Neutral emphasis; the default reading.
  • “Sorrow sometimes comes quietly.”

• Bazen keder sessiz geliyor.

  • Emphasis on bazen (“sometimes”).
  • Feels like: “Sometimes, sorrow comes quietly” — maybe contrasting with other times when it doesn’t.

Other possibilities:

• Keder sessiz bazen geliyor.

  • Grammatically possible but sounds awkward in most contexts.
  • The adverb bazen is usually placed early in the sentence (often right after the subject or at the very beginning).

• Bazen sessiz geliyor keder.

  • More poetic/inverted word order.
  • Might be seen in songs or poetry to highlight sessiz or to fit rhythm.

Core idea:
The element closest to the verb and the sentence-start position tend to carry more emphasis. The original order is the most neutral and natural.

Why don’t we need a pronoun like o (“he/she/it”) here?

Turkish is a “pro‑drop” language: subject pronouns are usually omitted when the subject is clear from context or explicitly stated.

• The subject of the sentence is keder, so no pronoun is needed:
  • Keder bazen sessiz geliyor. (not O keder bazen sessiz geliyor.)
• You only add o for:
  • Emphasis: O bazen sessiz geliyor. = It sometimes comes quietly (as opposed to something else).
  • Or when the subject has already been introduced and you’re just referring back to it:
    • Kederi tanıyorum. O bazen sessiz geliyor.
      I know that sorrow. It sometimes comes quietly.

In normal usage, with an explicit noun subject like keder, you don’t add o.

Could I say Keder bazen sessizce gelir instead? How does that change the meaning?

Yes, Keder bazen sessizce gelir is also correct, and the difference is in both the tense and the adverb:

• sessiz → sessizce:

  • Shifts the focus more clearly to the manner of coming (“quietly”).

• geliyor → gelir:

  • Changes from present continuous to aorist/simple present.
  • gelir makes it sound like a timeless statement, more proverb-like:
    • “Sorrow sometimes comes quietly (as a general truth).”

So you get:

• Keder bazen sessiz geliyor.
  More immediate, story‑like, emotionally “present.”
• Keder bazen sessizce gelir.
  More like a general observation or a saying: “Sorrow sometimes comes quietly.”

Is geliyor literal here (like “physically comes”), or can gelmek also be used metaphorically with emotions?

gelmek is very commonly used metaphorically in Turkish, especially with emotions and states:

• keder geliyor – sorrow comes (you start to feel sorrow)
• uyku geldi – sleepiness came (= I got sleepy)
• öfke geldi – anger came over (someone)
• aklıma bir fikir geldi – an idea came to my mind
• bana ilham geldi – inspiration came to me

In Keder bazen sessiz geliyor, it’s metaphorical: sorrow “arrives,” “sets in,” or “comes over” someone, and sometimes it does that quietly, without a dramatic sign.

Can keder be plural, like kederler for “sorrows”?

Grammatically, yes, you can make kederler, but it’s not common in everyday speech.

• keder is usually treated as a mass/uncountable noun:
  • Keder bazen sessiz geliyor.
• kederler would be understood as:
  • multiple kinds or instances of sorrow, often in a poetic or rhetorical way:
    • İnsanın kederleri bitmez. = A person’s sorrows never end.

In your sentence, Keder bazen sessiz geliyor is the natural choice. Kederler bazen sessiz geliyor would sound more unusual and literary, as if listing many separate sorrows.

How is each word in geliyor formed, and what does it tell us about person and tense?

geliyor can be broken down like this:

• gel- – verb root: “to come”
• -iyor – present continuous tense marker (the i is the 4-way vowel harmony version of -yor)
• No ending for person/number here, because:
  • 3rd person singular (he/she/it) has a zero personal ending in this tense.

So the pattern is:

• gel-iyor-um – I am coming
• gel-iyor-sun – you are coming
• gel-iyor – he/she/it is coming
• gel-iyor-uz – we are coming
• gel-iyor-sunuz – you (pl/formal) are coming
• gel-iyor-lar – they are coming

In Keder bazen sessiz geliyor, geliyor is 3rd person singular present continuous, matching the singular subject keder.

How do you pronounce this sentence, and where is the stress?

Approximate pronunciation (in syllables, stressed syllables in CAPS):

• Keder → ke-DER
  
  • ke like “ke” in ketchup (short), der like “dehr”
• bazen → BA-zen
  
  • ba like “ba” in bar (but shorter), zen like “zen”
• sessiz → ses-SİZ
  
  • ses like “sess,” siz like “seez” (with a short i, not long)
• geliyor → ge-li-YOR
  
  • ge like “geh,” li like “lee” (short), yor like “yor” in York (but with a pure /o/)

Typical stress pattern in this sentence would be something like:

• KEder BAzen sesSİZ geLIyor

In running speech, the main meaning-carrying words (keder, sessiz, geliyor) will be more prominent, and bazen can also get stress if you want to emphasise “sometimes.”