Breakdown of Partide kimse ciddi değildi, herkes mutluydu.
mutlu
happy
değil
not
parti
party
herkes
everyone
Questions & Answers about Partide kimse ciddi değildi, herkes mutluydu.
The translation says "No one was serious", but isn't değildi also negative?
Yes! In Turkish, kimse requires a negative word like değildi (was not) or a negative verb to mean "no one" or "nobody". So kimse ciddi değildi acts like a double negative. It literally translates to "anybody wasn't serious", which is how Turkish expresses "nobody was serious".
Since herkes means "everyone" (multiple people), why doesn't mutluydu have a plural ending like mutluydular?
In Turkish, indefinite pronouns like herkes (everyone) and kimse (no one) are treated as grammatically singular. Because of this, they take singular verb endings, just like the English words "everyone" and "no one" do.
Why is there a -y- in mutluydu but not in değildi?
The past tense ending for "was" follows vowel harmony. When attaching it to a word that ends in a vowel, like mutlu, you must use the buffer consonant -y- to connect them, making mutluydu. Because değil ends in a consonant, the ending attaches directly as değildi.