Learn Turkish: Sakar garson tepsiyi düşürüverdi. - The clumsy waiter suddenly dropped the tray.

It starts with the verb root düşür (to drop). Then we add the suddenness suffix -üver (using the ü to follow 4-way vowel harmony). Finally, the simple past tense suffix -di is added for the third-person subject, giving us düşürüverdi (he suddenly dropped).

Wait, isn't the verb for 'to fall' just düşmek? Where does the '-ür' come from?

Spot on! düşmek means 'to fall'. By adding the causative suffix -ür, it becomes düşürmek, which means 'to cause to fall' or 'to drop'. So the clumsy waiter didn't fall himself; he caused the tray to fall.

Could we just say 'düşürdü' instead of 'düşürüverdi' here?

Yes, but you would lose the feeling of suddenness. Düşürdü simply means 'he dropped it'. Adding the -üver suffix emphasizes that the action happened in a split second or entirely unexpectedly, which perfectly fits the clumsy (sakar) context.

Why does tepsi (tray) have '-yi' attached to it?

Because the tray is the specific direct object receiving the action of being dropped ('the tray'). Since tepsi ends in a vowel, we add the buffer consonant -y- before attaching the accusative case suffix -i, resulting in tepsiyi.