Breakdown of Eskiden fuarda kimi seyyar satıcıdan alışveriş yapar, kimi hiç para harcamazdı.
para
money
hiç
at all / any
satıcı
seller / shopkeeper
harcamak
to spend (money, time)
alışveriş yapmak
to go shopping
eskiden
in the old days, formerly
fuar
fair (trade, event) / exhibition
kimi
some / some of them
seyyar
mobile / itinerant
Questions & Answers about Eskiden fuarda kimi seyyar satıcıdan alışveriş yapar, kimi hiç para harcamazdı.
The lesson is about kimi(si) ... kimi(si) ..., but here we only see kimi ... kimi .... Is there a difference between kimi and kimisi here?
No, they mean the exact same thing ("some"). You can use kimi, kimisi, or even their plural form kimileri to mean "some people." Using kimi ... kimi ... sounds slightly more concise, but they are fully interchangeable in this context.
Why is the first verb just yapar (present aorist) while the second is harcamazdı (past aorist)? Shouldn't it be yapardı?
The past tense marker -dı on the final verb harcamazdı applies to the first verb yapar as well. In Turkish, when you have multiple verbs in the same tense separated by commas, it is very common to drop the tense or person endings on all but the final verb to avoid repetition. Because of the ending on the last verb, yapar is understood as yapardı ("would do").
Why does satıcı (vendor) take the ablative -dan case here?
The phrase alışveriş yapmak (to do shopping) takes the ablative case (-dan / -den) to indicate the person or place you are buying from. While in English we might say "shop at the vendor," Turkish focuses on where the goods are coming from.
What does the word seyyar add to satıcı?
Seyyar means "mobile" or "traveling." A seyyar satıcı is a vendor who moves around with a cart, stand, or tray, like a street vendor or peddler. This makes perfect sense for a fair (fuar) setting.
A quick refresher: why is the negative verb harcamazdı and not harcamadı?
The sentence describes a habitual action in the past ("would spend no money"), so it uses the past aorist tense. The positive form is harcardı (would spend). In the negative aorist for the third person, the positive suffix drops and becomes -maz, followed by the past tense -dı, giving us harcamazdı. Using harcamadı would mean a one-time simple past event: "did not spend."
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