Breakdown of Bölgede ciddi kazalar meydana gelmektedir.
ciddi
serious
kaza
accident
bölge
region
meydana gelmek
to occur / to happen
Questions & Answers about Bölgede ciddi kazalar meydana gelmektedir.
How does gelmektedir mean "are occurring"? Doesn't the present continuous usually use -iyor?
You are exactly right that -iyor is the standard present continuous suffix. However, in formal writing like news reports or official statements, Turkish uses the suffix -makta or -mekte instead. So, gelmekte means the exact same thing as geliyor, just more formally. The -dir at the end emphasizes that this is an objective, factual statement.
I know gelmek means "to come", but what does meydana add to it?
Meydan normally means "square" or "open space," and the -a is the "to" direction suffix. Literally, meydana gelmek means "to come out into the open space." In Turkish, this is the standard fixed expression for "to happen" or "to occur."
Since kazalar (accidents) is plural, why doesn't the verb have a plural suffix like gelmektedirler?
In Turkish, verbs only take a plural suffix if the plural subject is human. Since kazalar (accidents) are not human, the verb must stay in the singular form, even though we translate it as plural in English.
Is there a specific reason bölgede is at the very beginning of the sentence?