Learn Turkish: Kütüphanede şarkı mırıldanılmaz ve sessizce oturulur. - One doesn't hum songs in the library, and one sits silently.

In Turkish, you can add the passive suffix (like -ıl or -ul) to verbs to express general rules or actions done by "people in general." When used on intransitive verbs (verbs that don't take a direct object, like sitting), it acts as an impersonal passive. It translates perfectly to English as "one sits" or "people sit."

Why are these verbs in the aorist tense (-ur and -maz) instead of the present continuous (-ıyor)?

The aorist (broad) tense is the go-to choice for general facts, habits, and rules. Since this sentence states the standard rules of a library, the impersonal passive forms are combined with the aorist: oturulur (one generally sits) and mırıldanılmaz (one generally does not hum).

Let's look closely at mırıldanılmaz. How is this built from the root verb?

We start with the verb root mırıldan (to hum or mutter). To make it an impersonal passive, we add the suffix -ıl, creating mırıldanıl-. Finally, we add the negative aorist suffix for the third-person singular ("it"), which is -maz. Put together, mırıldanılmaz means "one does not hum."

The English translation says "songs" (plural), but the Turkish word is just şarkı (singular). Why isn't it şarkılar?