Questions & Answers about Kral ormanda eski bir kılıç bulmuş.
Why does the sentence use bulmuş instead of the regular past tense buldu?
The suffix -muş is the reported or inferential past tense. We use it when we did not see the event happen ourselves, but heard about it from someone else, or if it is a story. Since kings finding swords in forests sounds like a fairy tale or legend, bulmuş is the perfect choice here!
Why is it eski bir kılıç instead of bir eski kılıç?
Why does the reported past tense suffix take the form -muş here?
The suffix changes according to 4-way vowel harmony (-mış, -miş, -muş, or -müş). Since the vowel in the verb root bul (to find) is u, the suffix becomes -muş.
How does the word ormanda mean 'in the forest'?
It is made of the root orman (forest) plus the locative suffix -da (in/on/at). We use -da because the last vowel in orman is an a, which follows the rules of 2-way vowel harmony.