In this original fictional exchange, Selin is a woman speaking to Emre, a man. Read every example as her words to him, then read the whole exchange below. You will untangle her confession without treating every thought as a fact. No recording is attached.

The idea

First locate the main predicate, then bracket the chunks that supply its time, cause or content. Try [Sen beni dinlemeden gidince] / [artık bana güvenmediğini] / [sandım]. The first chunk tells when: he left without listening. The middle chunk is what she believed: he no longer trusted her. The last chunk tells who held that belief: she did. Write a person beside each action; one sentence need not have one subject. Keep a negative inside the chunk it belongs to.

Read the text

Emre: O gece neden sustun?

Selin: Ben o gece sustum. Sen kapıda beni bekledin. Sen kapıda beni beklerken ben içeride ne söyleyeceğimi düşünüyordum. Sana kızdığım için değil, seni incitmekten korktuğum için sustum. Sen beni dinlemeden gidince, artık bana güvenmediğini sandım. Beni anlamanı istedim ama ne hissettiğimi sana anlatmadım. Ben seni suçlamıyorum artık.

Emre: Sana güveniyordum. Konuşmak istemediğini düşündüm.

Examples

  • Ben o gece sustum.I kept silent that night.
  • Sen kapıda beni bekledin.You waited for me at the door.
  • Ben seni suçlamıyorum artık.I don’t blame you anymore.
  • Sen beni dinlemeden gidince, artık bana güvenmediğini sandım.When you left without hearing me out, I thought you no longer trusted me.
  • Sana kızdığım için değil, seni incitmekten korktuğum için sustum.I kept silent not because I was angry with you, but because I was afraid of hurting you.
  • Sen kapıda beni beklerken ben içeride ne söyleyeceğimi düşünüyordum.While you were waiting for me at the door, I was inside thinking about what I would say.
  • Beni anlamanı istedim ama ne hissettiğimi sana anlatmadım.I wanted you to understand me, but I didn’t tell you how I felt.

Read-aloud uses a synthetic Turkish voice available on your device. Voice quality and availability vary; it does not assess your pronunciation.

Watch out

Do not let the final “I” make every action hers, or turn sandım into proof. Also, sana kızdığım için değil rejects anger as the reason for the silence; it does not by itself prove that she felt no anger. The stated reason comes after it.

Try it yourself

  1. In the exchange, who left without listening? Write the name.

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    Emre / Emre gitti

    Emre: sen addresses him, so the departure in gidince is his; beni identifies the person he did not listen to.

  2. Who thought the other person no longer trusted them? Write the name.

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    Selin / Selin sandı

    Selin: sandım is her account of her own belief. He is the person she thought had lost trust, not the person doing the thinking.

  3. Which reason does Selin give for her silence? Choose: sana kızdığım için / seni incitmekten korktuğum için.

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    seni incitmekten korktuğum için

    seni incitmekten korktuğum için: she names fear of hurting him as her motive. Değil rejects the earlier explanation about anger.

  4. Which word does Emre use in his final reply? Choose: güveniyordum / güvenmiyordum.

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    güveniyordum

    güveniyordum: his affirmative reply says that he trusted her then. This contradicts her assumption about his trust; it does not erase the fact that he left.

Use it today

Mark the clauses in the long speech and label who waits, thinks, leaves and stays silent. In pairs, read the exchange with a pause between meaning units. Retell it in three short Turkish sentences, distinguishing what happened from what she assumed. Then continue to the lesson on proverbs in dialogue.