Breakdown of O gece çok soğuktu ama sobada kömür veya odun yanmıyordu.
o
that / he / she / it
çok
very
soğuk
cold
gece
night
ama
but
veya
or
yanmak
to burn
soba
stove
kömür
coal
odun
wood (firewood)
Questions & Answers about O gece çok soğuktu ama sobada kömür veya odun yanmıyordu.
How exactly is the word yanmıyordu built to mean "was not burning"?
It is built by adding suffixes to the verb root yan (burn). First, the negative suffix -mı is added. Then, the continuous suffix -yor makes it "is not burning". Finally, the past tense suffix -du changes it to "was not burning". So it breaks down as: yan-mı-yor-du.
Why does soğuktu end in -tu instead of the usual past tense suffix -du?
This happens because of consonant harmony. The word soğuk ends in a hard consonant (k). When you attach a suffix that normally starts with a soft letter like 'd' (such as the past tense -du), the hard 'k' forces that 'd' to change into a hard 't'. This makes it easier to pronounce.
If I want to say "I was burning the wood", can I use the verb yanmak?
No, because yanmak means "to be burning" or "to catch fire" by itself (it doesn't take a direct object). If you want to say that someone is actively setting something on fire or burning it, you need to use a different verb: yakmak. In this sentence, the wood itself wasn't burning, so we use a form of yanmak.
Since the sentence mentions both coal (kömür) and wood (odun), why isn't the verb plural like yanmıyorlardı?
First, they are connected by veya (or), meaning we are looking at them as single alternatives, not a combined group. Second, in Turkish, non-human subjects do not usually take plural verb endings anyway. So even if it was "coal and wood" (kömür ve odun), the verb would still be the singular yanmıyordu.
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