Learn Turkish: Sımsıcak havada yürüyüp masmavi göle girdik. - Walking in the piping hot weather, we entered the deep blue lake.

To intensify an adjective in Turkish, you take its first syllable (up to the first vowel), add one of the letters m, p, r, or s, and then attach the whole original word. For sıcak (hot), we take sı-, add m, and get sımsıcak (piping hot). For mavi (blue), we take ma-, add s, and get masmavi (deep blue).

Is there a rule for knowing which letter (m, p, r, or s) to use in these intensified adjectives?

Unfortunately, no. There is no strict grammar rule to predict which consonant to use; it mostly comes down to established phonetic flow, so you have to memorize them as set vocabulary. While p is the most common, m and s appear in very common words like sımsıcak and masmavi.

What does the -üp suffix on yürüyüp do?

The -(y)ıp / -ip / -up / -üp suffix acts like the word "and" to connect two sequential actions done by the same subject. Instead of saying yürüdük ve girdik (we walked and we entered), you say yürüyüp girdik. The first verb drops its tense and person endings, letting the final verb (girdik) provide the "we" and the past tense for both actions.

Why do we use the -da ending for hava but the -e ending for ?