Tiyatroya giderken eski bir dostuma rastladım.

On the way to the theatre, I ran into an old friend.

Breakdown of Tiyatroya giderken eski bir dostuma rastladım.

• bir: a
• gitmek: to go
• benim: my
• eski: old
• dost: the friend
• -ya: to
• -a: to
• -ken: while
• rastlamak: to run into
• tiyatro: the theatre

Questions & Answers about Tiyatroya giderken eski bir dostuma rastladım.

Why is it tiyatroya and not just tiyatro?

Tiyatroya is tiyatro (theatre) + the dative case suffix -(y)a / -(y)e, which often corresponds to English “to”.

• tiyatro – theatre
• tiyatro + a → tiyatroya (a buffer y is added because the word ends in a vowel)

We use the dative case after verbs of movement like gitmek (to go) to show direction:

• okula gitmek – to go to school
• eve gitmek – to go home / to home
• tiyatroya gitmek – to go to the theatre

So tiyatroya giderken means “while going to the theatre”, not just “while going theatre”.

What exactly does giderken mean, and why not just gittim?

Giderken is a converb form (a kind of “-ing” or “while doing” form), built like this:

• gitmek – to go
• stem: gid-
• present continuous marker-like -er (here as part of the converb pattern)
• -ken – “while, when”

So giderken roughly means “while (I was) going” or “on my way”.

If you said:

• Tiyatroya gittim, eski bir dostuma rastladım.
  → I went to the theatre, I ran into an old friend.

This describes two separate past events in sequence.

But:

• Tiyatroya giderken eski bir dostuma rastladım.
  → While I was on my way to the theatre, I ran into an old friend.

This emphasizes that the meeting happened during the action of going, not before or after. That’s why giderken is used instead of gittim.

Why is it eski bir dostuma and not eski bir dostumu?

The difference comes from the verb’s case requirement.

• dostum – my friend
• dostumu – my friend (accusative, direct object: “my friend” as the thing acted on)
• dostuma – my friend (dative, “to my friend” / “towards my friend”)

The verb here is rastlamak (to run into / come across).
Rastlamak always takes the dative case: (birine) rastlamak = “to run into someone”.

So:

• eski bir dostuma rastladım
  → I ran into an old friend (literally: I ran into to an old friend)

Using dostumu would be grammatically wrong with rastlamak, because rastlamak does not take a direct object in the accusative; it takes an indirect object in the dative.

What does rastladım literally mean? How is it formed?

Rastladım comes from the verb rastlamak.

Structure:

• root: rastla- (to run into, to come across)
• past tense suffix: -dı (with vowel harmony → -dı / -di / -du / -dü)
• 1st person singular ending: -m (I)

So:

• rastla-
  • -dı
    • -m → rastladım = “I ran into / I came across”

Literally, the sentence is:

• Tiyatroya giderken eski bir dostuma rastladım.
  → While going to the theatre, I ran into an old friend.

Is the pronoun ben missing? Why don’t we say Ben … rastladım?

The subject ben (I) is not required in Turkish, because it is already encoded in the verb ending.

• rastladım ends in -m, which tells us the subject is “I”.

You can add ben for emphasis or contrast:

• Ben tiyatroya giderken eski bir dostuma rastladım.
  → I (as opposed to someone else) ran into an old friend while going to the theatre.

But in neutral sentences, Turkish usually drops the subject pronoun when it’s clear from the verb.

What is the word order here, and can I move parts around?

The basic word order is:

• [Time / circumstance] [Object / other complements] [Verb]

In the sentence:

• Tiyatroya giderken – time/circumstance (“while going to the theatre”)
• eski bir dostuma – the person you ran into
• rastladım – verb

So: Tiyatroya giderken / eski bir dostuma / rastladım.

Turkish word order is flexible, especially for emphasis. These are all grammatical:

• Eski bir dostuma tiyatroya giderken rastladım.
• Eski bir dostuma rastladım tiyatroya giderken. (less common, but possible in speech)

However, the default, most neutral sounding order keeps the main verb at the end, so the original sentence is the most natural.

Why do we say eski bir dostuma and not bir eski dostuma? Where does bir go?

In Turkish, the usual order is:

• [adjective] + bir + noun

So:

• eski bir dost – an old friend
• büyük bir ev – a big house
• ilginç bir film – an interesting film

Putting bir before the adjective (bir eski dostuma) is not standard. It’s normally:

• eski bir dostum – my old friend
• eski bir dostuma – to my old friend

So eski (old) comes first, then bir (a/an), then dostum(a) (my friend / to my friend).

What is the difference between rastlamak, karşılaşmak, and buluşmak?

All can involve meeting someone, but they have different nuances:

• rastlamak (birine) – to run into / come across someone by chance

  • Eski bir dostuma rastladım. – I ran into an old friend (by coincidence).

• karşılaşmak (biriyle) – to bump into or encounter someone (also usually by chance)

  • Eski bir dostumla karşılaştım. – I bumped into an old friend.

• buluşmak (biriyle) – to meet up with someone on purpose, by arrangement

  • Eski bir dostumla buluştum. – I met up with an old friend (we planned it).

In your sentence, rastladım clearly implies the meeting was unplanned / accidental.

Why is there a y in tiyatroya? Where does that letter come from?

The y in tiyatroya is a buffer consonant (also called a glide) used to avoid an awkward vowel clash.

• tiyatro ends with a vowel (-o)
• the dative suffix is -a / -e

Directly attaching them would give tiyatroa, which is hard to pronounce. So Turkish inserts y:

• tiyatro + a → tiyatroya

This buffer y appears in several situations where a suffix that starts with a vowel attaches to a word ending in a vowel:

• araba + ım → arabam (here consonant change instead)
• baba + ım → babam
• oda + a → odaya – to the room
• okul + a → okula (no y needed because okul ends in a consonant)

With tiyatro, we specifically get tiyatroya because of vowel + vowel.

Can giderken mean both “while I was going” and “when I was going”? Is -ken always “while”?

The suffix -ken usually means “while doing / as (someone) is doing” and often overlaps with English “when” in the sense of “at the time that”.

In this sentence:

• Tiyatroya giderken eski bir dostuma rastladım.
  → While I was going to the theatre, I ran into an old friend.
  → When I was on my way to the theatre, I ran into an old friend.

Both “while” and “when” are acceptable translations here; the main idea is simultaneity — the two actions happen during the same time frame.

So -ken expresses that the second event happens during the first ongoing action.