Breakdown of Bodrumdan garip sesler duyuyordum.
ses
voice / sound
duymak
to hear
bodrum
basement
garip
strange
Questions & Answers about Bodrumdan garip sesler duyuyordum.
Why doesn't Bodrumdan have an apostrophe if Bodrum is a famous city in Turkey?
Because here it's not the city! The common noun bodrum means "basement" or "cellar". It is only capitalized here because it's the first word of the sentence. If we were talking about leaving the city of Bodrum, we would need an apostrophe for the proper noun: Bodrum'dan.
How is the verb duyuyordum built to mean "I was hearing"?
This is the past continuous tense, which combines two time suffixes. It starts with the verb root duy- (to hear). First we add the continuous suffix -uyor (making it like "hearing"), then the past tense suffix -du ("was"), and finally the personal ending -m ("I"). Together, -uyordum means "I was doing [verb]".
The English translation says "voices", but doesn't sesler mean "sounds"?
It can mean both! In Turkish, ses translates to "sound", "voice", or even "audio volume". You have to rely on context to know which one is meant. Garip sesler could just as easily mean "strange sounds" here.
What would it mean if the sentence started with Bodrumda instead of Bodrumdan?
The suffix -dan means "from", so Bodrumdan means the sounds are coming from the basement. If you used the location suffix -da (Bodrumda), it would mean "in the basement"—meaning you were standing in the basement while hearing the sounds.
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