Learn Turkish: Öğrenciler karanlıkta kitap okumuyordu, elektrik bekliyordu. - The students were not reading books in the dark, they were waiting for electricity.

Öğrenciler karanlıkta kitap okumuyordu, elektrik bekliyordu.

The students were not reading books in the dark, they were waiting for electricity.

Breakdown of Öğrenciler karanlıkta kitap okumuyordu, elektrik bekliyordu.

Questions & Answers about Öğrenciler karanlıkta kitap okumuyordu, elektrik bekliyordu.

How do we build the negative past continuous verb okumuyordu from the root okumak?

We start with the verb root oku- (to read). When adding the continuous suffix -yor, the negative suffix -ma or -me always changes into a narrow vowel (mı, mi, mu, or mü). Because of vowel harmony with oku, the negative becomes -mu. Then we add -yor (continuous) and -du (past). So we get: oku + mu + yor + du (was not reading).

The subject öğrenciler is plural. Why don't the verbs have a plural ending like okumuyordular or bekliyordular?

In Turkish, if a plural subject referring to people is explicitly stated in the sentence (like öğrenciler with its -ler suffix), it is very common and perfectly correct to leave the verb in the singular form. You could say okumuyordular, but okumuyordu is much more natural and common in everyday speech.

I learned that the verb "to wait" is beklemek. Why does it change to bekliyordu instead of bekleyiyordu?