Learn Turkish: Park güvenli değildi ve kimse gitmek istemedi. - The park was not safe and no one wanted to go.

Park güvenli değildi ve kimse gitmek istemedi.

The park was not safe and no one wanted to go.

Breakdown of Park güvenli değildi ve kimse gitmek istemedi.

Questions & Answers about Park güvenli değildi ve kimse gitmek istemedi.

Why is the verb istemedi negative if kimse already means 'no one'?

In Turkish, words like kimse (anyone/no one) require a negative verb when you want to say 'nobody' did something. So, kimse ... istemedi is structured like 'anyone did not want.' Unlike English, this 'double negative' is completely normal and required in Turkish!

How is değildi formed, and why don't we just use a negative verb suffix like -me?

Because güvenli (safe) is an adjective, not a verb. The negative verb suffixes (-me or -ma) only attach to action verbs (like istemedi). To make an adjective negative, we use the separate word değil (not). To say 'was not', we add the past tense ending -di directly to değil, making değildi.

Why does gitmek have the full -mek ending here?

When you want to say you want 'to do' an action, the action verb takes its full infinitive (dictionary) form, which ends in -mak or -mek. Since the main verb of the clause is istemedi (did not want), the action they didn't want to do—gitmek (to go)—stays in this basic infinitive form.

Does the -li ending on güvenli have a special meaning?