Now we're going to talk about how to form
yes/no questions in Turkish with the present tense of the verb "to be"
we're going to use the same set of
personal suffixes that we learned to form
affirmative sentences with the verb "to be" and negative sentences in the present with the verb "to be" also
But this time we're going to add something called a question particle
Let's take a look. We saw that for an affirmative sentence with the verb to be
you added the personal suffix to the noun so for example if you wanted to say "I am a doctor"
"Ben" (optional) "doktor": Turkish word for doctor
"-um": personal suffix, "Ben doktorum." If you want to say, "I am not a doctor" been
"Ben doktor..."
then you add the Turkish word for "not": değil
and
then add your personal suffix
In the first person singular to "değil" according to the rules of four-way vowel harmony
So you're going to choose "-im" - "Ben doktor değilim"
But what if you want to ask the question "Am I a doctor?"
Let's take a look, we're going to start with the same ingredients, so
this is our yes/no question here
optional "ben" you can have it or not, "ben"
"doktor": Turkish word for doctor, so far the same
Here is where the time has come for us to insert our question particle
Now the question particle in Turkish follows the rules of four-way vowel harmony, which means it can take one of four different forms
"mi, mı, mu, and mü"
Which of these forms we choose is going to depend on the final vowel in the word
preceding the question particle (if you need a refresher on how four way vowel harmony works, we have a video for that)
for "doktor" because of this "o"
final vowel in the word preceding the question particle, we're going to choose "mu"
"Ben doktor mu" and notice that the question particle like the word for not is written as a separate word
from the noun
So "Ben doktor mu" but of course we would ask "Am I a doctor?" which means we need to add one of our personal
suffixes
first person singular
remember our vowel harmony, so "-um"
Ben doktor mu...um?
But remember turkish does not like to have two vowels next to each other, so you are required to
insert a
"y" between this question particle and this personal suffix
so "Ben doktor muyum?"
a nice buffer "y" to make that easy
to say in Turkish, "Ben doktor muyum?": Am I a doctor?
Let's look at how to form yes/no questions in the other persons of
second person, third person
What about "sen" you singular
"Sen doktor..." so far the same
insert the question particle, it's going to be "mu" because of vowel harmony
"Sen doktor mu..."
Now we've got to add
our second person singular personal suffix. Vowel harmony tells us
It's going to be "-sun," and we don't need the "y" because "-sun" does not begin with a vowel so
"Sen doktor musun?": Are you singular informal a doctor?
Let's look at the third person, "Is he or she a doctor?"
In this case remember you're going to have to use either
the personal pronoun "o": he/she/it or an actual noun, so "o" is he
"doktor"
question particle "mu"
And that's it
That's all you need because
we're not going to be adding a personal suffix
for the third person singular
so "O doktor mu?"
Is he or she a doctor?
Let's look at the plural
"Biz": We
"doktor mu?" and again
we're going to choose the first person plural
"mu...uz"
But we need to buffer these two vowels with a consonant "muyuz"
Nice buffer "y"
"Biz doktor muyuz?": Are we doctors?
Let's try the second person plural
"Siz doktor mu..." again
"...sunuz" were choosing "sunuz"
Are you, plural are you, formal doctors?
Finally "onlar": they and again you have to have either
the word "onlar or a
plural noun here
"Onlar doktor mu?": Are they doctors?
That's how you ask yes/no questions using the verb "to be" in Turkish