Learn Turkish: Meteora rağmen kuşların çoğu güneye göç etmişti. - Despite the meteor, most of the birds had migrated south.

Meteora rağmen kuşların çoğu güneye göç etmişti.

Despite the meteor, most of the birds had migrated south.

Breakdown of Meteora rağmen kuşların çoğu güneye göç etmişti.

despite / in spite of

Questions & Answers about Meteora rağmen kuşların çoğu güneye göç etmişti.

Why is it göç etmişti and not just göç etti?

göç etmişti uses the past perfect tense (adding -miş then -ti). This translates to 'had migrated'. It emphasizes that the migration was already completed before another past event (like the meteor arriving), whereas göç etti would just mean 'migrated' and might imply they migrated after or because of the meteor.

Why does meteor have an -a at the end in Meteora rağmen?

The word rağmen (despite) always requires the noun before it to be in the dative case (adding -a or -e). Because meteor has a back vowel in its final syllable, we add -a to make Meteora rağmen.

How does kuşların çoğu break down grammatically?

It uses the genitive-possessive structure. kuşların means 'of the birds' (genitive). For 'most', we take the word çok and add the possessive -u to mean 'their most'. Adding this vowel softens the k to ğ, making it çoğu. Literally, it reads as 'the birds' most'.

Why is there an -e at the end of güneye?