Breakdown of Yayalar yolu geçerken şoför frene bastı.
yol
road
şoför
driver
geçmek
to pass / to cross / to shift (into a gear)
basmak
to press
Questions & Answers about Yayalar yolu geçerken şoför frene bastı.
Why is -ken attached to the aorist tense (geçerken) instead of the present continuous (geçiyorken)?
Both are grammatically correct and mean "while crossing." Attaching -ken to the aorist tense (geçer) is the most common way to say "while doing something" for a background event. Using geçiyorken is also perfectly fine and just puts a tiny bit more emphasis on the ongoing, continuous nature of the action.
How do we know who is crossing if geçerken doesn't have a personal ending?
The suffix -ken never takes personal endings (like -im or -sin). You have to figure out the "who" from the subject of that part of the sentence. Here, the word yayalar (the pedestrians) is placed in the first half of the sentence to show that they are the ones crossing.
Why is it yolu instead of just yol?
Because it is a specific road. When you cross "the" road, the road is the specific direct object of the verb geçmek (to cross), so it takes the definite accusative suffix -u.
Why does fren (brake) take the dative suffix -e in frene bastı?
In Turkish, the verb basmak (to press / to step on) requires the object you are pressing to be in the dative case, which shows direction. You can think of it as applying physical pressure "to" the brakes.