Breakdown of Meğerse o adam polis değil, bir dolandırıcıymış.
bir
a / an
o
that / he / she / it
adam
man
değil
not
Questions & Answers about Meğerse o adam polis değil, bir dolandırıcıymış.
How does meğerse change the meaning of this sentence?
Meğerse (or meğer) expresses a sudden realization or discovery that goes against what you previously thought. It translates well to "it turns out that" or "as it happens." Here, it shows the speaker originally believed the man was a police officer, but just found out the shocking truth.
Why do we use the -mış past tense (dolandırıcıymış) instead of the regular past tense (dolandırıcıydı)?
The word meğerse almost always pairs with the -mış (evidential/inferential) past tense. Because meğerse means you just discovered a truth you didn't previously know, the -mış suffix perfectly matches that feeling of "I just realized/found out that..." rather than a direct, witnessed past action.
Shouldn't it be "polis değilmiş" instead of just "polis değil"?
It could be, but in Turkish, when you connect two statements that share the same tense and person, you can drop the suffix from the first part. The -(y)mış at the very end of the sentence automatically applies to değil as well. Saying polis değil, bir dolandırıcıymış is just a more natural, less repetitive way of saying polis değilmiş, bir dolandırıcıymış.
Why is there a "bir" before dolandırıcıymış but not before polis?