Learn Turkish: İyi ki yanıldım, o çok iyi bir insan. - Fortunately I was mistaken, he is a very good person.

İyi ki is an evaluative marker that expresses relief or happiness about a fact, translating to "fortunately" or "it's a good thing that." It is usually followed by a fully conjugated verb (a finite verb). Here, it pairs with the past tense verb yanıldım (I was mistaken) to mean "It is a good thing that I was mistaken."

What verb is yanıldım formed from, and how is it different from just saying "wrong"?

The root verb is yanılmak, which means "to be mistaken," "to be deceived," or "to err." While English often just uses the adjective "wrong" for everything, Turkish uses this specific verb for the act of misjudging a situation, a feeling, or a person. If you just had an incorrect answer on a math test, you would use the adjective yanlış instead.

Why is the word order çok iyi bir insan instead of bir çok iyi insan?

In Turkish, when an adjective modifies a noun that is accompanied by the indefinite article bir (a/an), bir almost always goes between the adjective and the noun. So, "a very good person" must be structured as çok iyi (very good) + bir (a) + insan (person).

Could iyi ki be used with other tenses, or does it only work with the past tense like in this sentence?