sürmek: driving, spreading and lasting

The idea

With a vehicle, sürmek means drive or ride. With a substance and surface, it means spread. With an event and time span, it means last.

Examples

• Ben şehir dışında araba sürüyorum.I am driving outside the city.
• Dün sahilde birlikte bisiklet sürdük.We rode bicycles together by the coast yesterday.
• Yarın sabah arabayı ben süreceğim.Tomorrow morning I will be the one driving the car.
• Ekmeğe biraz tereyağı sür.Spread a little butter on the bread.
• Bu toplantı iki saat sürdü.This meeting lasted two hours.
• Yağmur bütün gece sürdü.The rain continued all night.

Watch out

In toplantı sürdü, the meeting is the subject; no driver is implied. In arabayı sürdüm, the car is the object of my action.

Try it yourself

1. Complete in the present continuous: Ben şimdi araba ___. (sürmek)

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   sürüyorum

   sürüyorum: the present action has the first-person ending because the subject is ben.

2. Complete in the definite past (-di): Biz dün bisiklet ___. (sürmek)

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   sürdük

   sürdük: dün locates the event yesterday; final -k agrees with biz.

3. Complete in the future tense: Ben yarın arabayı ___. (sürmek)

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   süreceğim

   süreceğim: use the future requested in the exercise; its k becomes ğ before the vowel of the ben ending.

Use it today

Say who will drive, what you spread on bread and how long a meeting lasted in three different sentences.