Hayret, bu hikâye abartı değilmiş.

Hayret is an interjection expressing surprise, like Wow, Really!, or How surprising.

In this sentence, it sets the emotional tone: the speaker has just realized something unexpected.

A simple breakdown is:

• bu = this
• hikâye = story, account, tale
• abartı = exaggeration
• değilmiş = apparently is not / turned out not to be

So the structure is basically:

• bu hikâye = this story
• abartı değilmiş = was not an exaggeration after all / turns out not to be an exaggeration

Because abartı is a noun meaning exaggeration, while abartılı is an adjective meaning exaggerated.

So:

• Bu hikâye abartı değilmiş. = This story wasn’t an exaggeration / turned out not to be exaggerated in the sense of being an exaggeration.
• Bu hikâye abartılı değilmiş. = This story wasn’t exaggerated.

They are close in meaning, but not identical.

The suffix -miş often adds a sense of:

• something learned later
• something inferred from evidence
• something realized suddenly
• sometimes hearsay

Here it gives the feeling of it turns out or apparently.

So değilmiş is not just plain is not. It suggests a discovery:

• abartı değil = it is not an exaggeration
• abartı değilmiş = it turns out it wasn’t an exaggeration / apparently it’s not an exaggeration

With Hayret, the discovery/surprise meaning is especially strong.

Because değil is the basic negative form of the copula, while değilmiş adds the -miş evidential/inferential meaning.

Compare:

• değil = is not
• değildi = was not
• değilmiş = apparently is/was not, turned out not to be

So the speaker is not simply stating a fact. They are reacting to a newly discovered fact.

Turkish often does not use a separate verb like English to be in sentences with noun or adjective predicates.

So:

• Bu hikâye abartı. = This story is an exaggeration.
• Bu hikâye abartı değil. = This story is not an exaggeration.

The idea of is/was is carried by the structure itself and by suffixes when needed. In this sentence, that meaning is expressed through değilmiş.

It depends on context and on how natural English expresses the idea.

Grammatically, -miş here is not exactly the same as a simple English past tense. It often means it turns out that X was/is not.

In natural English, this sentence is often translated with a past idea:

• Turns out this story wasn’t an exaggeration.
• Wow, this story wasn’t an exaggeration after all.

That is why you may see wasn’t in translation even though the Turkish form is not a simple past like değildi.

In Turkish, predicate nouns often appear without bir.

So:

• Bu hikâye abartı değilmiş. = normal and natural

You could sometimes add bir for emphasis or style:

• Bu hikâye bir abartı değilmiş.

But the version without bir is the usual neutral form.

The formal spelling is hikâye.

The circumflex in words like this can mark an older vowel length or affect pronunciation slightly, especially in more careful or traditional spelling. In modern everyday writing, many people write hikaye without the circumflex, and you will see that often.

So:

• hikâye = formal/standard spelling
• hikaye = very common informal spelling

Not necessarily.

Hikâye can mean:

• a story
• a tale
• an account
• what people have been saying about something

So in context, bu hikâye may mean not only a written story, but also this whole story / this account / this thing people said.

That is why abartı değilmiş can sound very natural with it: the speaker means that what they heard was not exaggerated after all.

Yes, Turkish word order is flexible, but the given version is the most neutral:

• Hayret, bu hikâye abartı değilmiş.

A different order can change emphasis:

• Hayret, abartı değilmiş bu hikâye.

That version puts more focus on abartı değilmiş. It is possible, but the original sentence is the most straightforward for a learner.