Breakdown of Kaplumbağa yavaş yürürmüş ama her zaman kazanırmış.
zaman
time
yavaş
slow, slowly
yürümek
to walk
her
every
ama
but
kazanmak
to earn / to win
kaplumbağa
tortoise, turtle
Questions & Answers about Kaplumbağa yavaş yürürmüş ama her zaman kazanırmış.
Why do the verbs end in -rmüş and -rmış instead of a regular past tense?
This sentence uses the inferential aorist (the aorist -r plus the reported past -mış). We use this combination for telling fables, myths, or stories passed down by others. The aorist part shows it was a habit or general truth in the story, while the -mış part shows we are retelling a tale we heard, like the famous story of the Tortoise and the Hare.
Why does the English translation use "would" instead of "reportedly" or "I heard that"?
While the -mış suffix literally means "reportedly" or "I gathered that", translating it that way sounds clunky in English. When English speakers tell fables or describe past habits in a story, they often use "would" (meaning "used to"). Translating yürürmüş as "would walk" captures both the repetitive habit and the storytelling tone perfectly.
Why does yürürmüş use the vowel ü in the middle, but kazanırmış uses ı?
This is a quick reminder of the aorist tense rules. The verb yürümek (to walk) ends in a vowel, so it simply takes an -r to become yürür, and then vowel harmony turns the inferential suffix into -müş. The verb kazanmak (to win) ends in a consonant and has more than one syllable, so it takes the vowel ı to form the aorist kazanır, followed by -mış.
Why is yavaş (slow) used here instead of an adverb like yavaşça (slowly)?
In Turkish, most adjectives can be used directly as adverbs just by placing them right before the verb. You don't always need to add a suffix to translate "-ly". While yavaşça is a valid word, just using yavaş before yürürmüş is extremely common and natural to mean "walks slowly".
Learn Kaplumbağa yavaş yürürmüş ama her zaman kazanırmış and more in Turkish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free