Learn Turkish: Ormanlar yandığından beri bu çöl yıllar boyunca büyüdü. - Since the forests burned, this desert grew for years.

Ormanlar yandığından beri bu çöl yıllar boyunca büyüdü.

Since the forests burned, this desert grew for years.

Breakdown of Ormanlar yandığından beri bu çöl yıllar boyunca büyüdü.

Questions & Answers about Ormanlar yandığından beri bu çöl yıllar boyunca büyüdü.

How is yandığından beri built?

It uses the pattern you are learning in this lesson: verb root yan- (burn) + participle -dık (which softens to -dığı with the third-person possessive ending) + buffer -n- + ablative case -dan + beri (since). Literally, it translates to 'from the time of its burning'.

Since ormanlar (forests) is plural, why does yandığından use the singular possessive -dığı instead of the plural -dıkları?

For non-human plural subjects like ormanlar, Turkish strongly prefers singular verb and participle endings. While yandıklarından isn't strictly wrong, yandığından is much more common and natural in this context.

What does boyunca mean, and could I just use yıllarca here?

boyunca means 'throughout' or 'for the duration of'. You absolutely could use yıllarca (for years) instead; yıllar boyunca just adds a slight emphasis on the continuous span of time during which the desert grew.

Why is the verb büyüdü in the simple past tense if the growth happened continuously over years?

The definite past tense -di can describe a process that took a long time, as long as that period is viewed as a completed whole. The speaker is looking back at the entire process of the desert growing and stating it as a finished historical fact.