Learn Turkish: Hakem maçı erken bitirmeseydi, ikinci golü atardık. - If the referee hadn't finished the match early, we would have scored the second goal.

Let's break it down: bitir (finish) + -me (negative) + -se (conditional "if") + -y- (buffer) + -di (past). In Turkish, combining the conditional -se with the past tense -di creates a past counterfactual—something that didn't actually happen. So, bitirmeseydi literally means "if he hadn't finished."

Why is the aorist tense used in "atardık" to mean "we would have scored"?

To say "would have done" in the result part of a past counterfactual sentence, Turkish combines the aorist tense (the "broad" tense, -ar or -er) with the past tense (-dı). Here, at (score/throw) + -ar (aorist) + -dı (past) + -k ("we" ending) forms atardık (we would have scored).

The word "gol" has an "o", so why is the suffix in "golü" an "-ü" instead of an "-u"?

Gol is a loanword (from the English "goal"). Some loanwords in Turkish break standard vowel harmony rules because of their original pronunciation. Therefore, it takes front-vowel suffixes like -ü for the accusative (golü) and -ler for the plural (goller), rather than -u or -lar.

Why does "golü atardık" use the verb "atmak" (to throw)?