Mış Muş

Gossip is pretty much ubiquitous. Every place on earth there's more than 2 people, people enjoy talking about people who aren't there. Also people are bad so they sometimes say bad things about the people who aren't there.

In Turkey, people take gossip to another level, in fact, they have entire tense for it. For example:

If want to say "This morning Mehmet went to school." I would say:

"Bu sabah Mehmet okula gitti."

But if I didn't see it with my own eyes (i.e. I'm assuming he went to school) I say:

"Bu sabah Mehmet okula gitmiş."

The mış/muş case ending let's everyone know it's not firsthand information.

But the use of mış/muş (pronounce mish/moosh) doesn't stop there. For instance, nobody remembers being born, so technically your birthday is second hand information.

"Ben 1987 yılında doğmuşum"

Even crazier, if you were drunk enough to not remember what happened, you should use mış/muş.

Dün akşam sarhoş olmuşum.

Definitely gives a new meaning to "heard it through the grapevine."