Learn Turkish: İkinci yarıyı seyretmezdi. - He would not watch the second half.

Instead of the affirmative aorist suffix (like -er or -ir), it uses the negative aorist suffix -mez. Then, the past tense suffix -di is added to show it was a past habit. Together, seyret-mez-di means "he used to not watch" or "he would not watch".

Why is the object yarıyı instead of just yarı?

The verb seyretmek (to watch) targets a specific direct object here—he is watching the second half, not just any half. This requires the accusative case. Because yarı (half) ends in a vowel, it needs the buffer letter -y- before taking the accusative suffix -ı.

I see the verb comes from seyretmek, but isn't the noun for viewing seyir? What happened to the 'i'?

Seyretmek is a compound verb made from the noun seyir and the helper verb etmek (to do). When they are combined into a single word, the narrow vowel in the second syllable of seyir drops out. This is a common sound rule for certain nouns when they merge with helper verbs.

How does the word ikinci work to mean "second"?