Breakdown of Dün herkes müdürle tanıştı.
müdür
manager, director
ile
with / by / and (linking nouns)
herkes
everyone
dün
yesterday
Questions & Answers about Dün herkes müdürle tanıştı.
Why does herkes mean 'everyone' but the verb tanıştı is singular?
Even though herkes (everyone) refers to multiple people, it acts as a grammatically singular word in Turkish. You must always use the third-person singular form of the verb, which is why we use tanıştı rather than the plural tanıştılar.
Why is there a -le attached to müdür?
In English, you simply 'meet' someone. But in Turkish, the verb tanışmak (to meet or get acquainted) requires the instrumental case, which means you must use the suffix -le or -la (meaning 'with'). So, the sentence literally says everyone met 'with the manager' (müdürle).
Why is the suffix -le instead of -la on müdürle?
The suffix for 'with' follows 2-way vowel harmony. Because the last vowel in müdür is ü (a front vowel), the suffix becomes -le. If you used a word with a back vowel, like patron (boss), it would be patronla.
Could I use buluştu instead of tanıştı in this sentence?