Learn Turkish: Spot sahnede parladığında dekor muhteşem görünüyordu. - When the spotlight shone on the stage, the set looked magnificent.

It comes from the verb parlamak (to shine). We add the time clause suffix -dık, then the 3rd-person possessive -ı (referring to the spotlight), and finally the locative suffix -nda (at/in). Literally, it translates to 'at the time of its shining,' which we naturally translate as 'when it shone'.

Why does the suffix -dık change to -dığ in parladığında?

This is a standard consonant mutation. The base suffix is -dık, but when the possessive vowel -ı is added next, the hard consonant k is trapped between two vowels. To make it easier to pronounce, the k softens into a ğ.

Why is the verb görünüyordu used instead of görüyordu?

The root görmek means 'to see,' so görüyordu would mean the set 'was seeing' something. By adding the suffix -ün, we create the verb görünmek, which means 'to be seen,' 'to seem,' or 'to look' (as in appearance). This gives us 'the set looked magnificent.'

Why use the continuous past tense görünüyordu instead of the simple past göründü?