Interrogative sentences in Turkish and English

1. [Metni yazın]
1
2014
INTERROGATIVE
SENTENCES
IN ENGLISH
AND TURKISH
Yüksel Göknel
Y G O K N E L @ O U T L O O K . C O M

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MORPHEMES AND THEIR ALLOMORPHS
AND
SYLLABLES
In linguistcs, a morpheme is defined as the smallest meaningful unit in a lan-
guage. A morpheme in Turkish may have a number of differently pro-
nounced morphames that are called the allomorphs of the same morheme.
All the allomorphs of a morpheme carry the same meaning of the morpheme
that they represent.
There are two sequences in Turkish that produce meaningful sentences.
The basic sequence is the morphemic sequnce that carries meaning. This
raw morphemic sequnce is difficult to verbalize. Therefore, they are verbal-
ized by the sound system of the Turkish language.
The sound system of Turkish rearranges the raw morphemic sequences so
that they can be produced by the speech organs and heard through the
ears.
What does the Turkish sound system do to produce an utterable harmonic
sequence?
In my articles you can see three example senteces written in three lines
written one below the other. The first line shows the morphemic sequence of
a sentence in which the the free morphemes and bound morphemes are
seperated by dashes (-). The second line below it shows the oral sequence
of the mophemic sequence over it whose syllables are seperated by star (*)
symbols and whose words are separated by dashes (/). The last line below it
shows the English equivalent of the above Turkish sentence.
1: If there are two identical vowels, one at the end of a morpheme or an
allomorph; and another one at the beginning of the following allomorph,
these two identical allomorphs combine and verbalize as a single vowel,
such as:
Okul-un ön-ü/n/-de bekle-eş-i.yor-uz.
(o*ku*lun / ö*nün*de / bek*le*şi*yo*ruz ↷)
We are waiting together in front of the school.
The “e-e” vowels. above combine and verbalize as a single vowel “e”. The
other “a-a”, “i-i”, “ı-ı”, “u-u”, “ü-ü” vowels also combine and verbalize
as single vowels “a”, “i”, “ı”, “ü”, “u”.

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2: If a single underlined consonant, such as (k), is at the end of a mor-
pheme, this consonant detaches from its morpheme or allomorph and
attaches to the first vowel of the following allomorph:
Ben genellik-le yedi-de kalk-ar-ım.
(ben / ge*nel*lik*le / ye*di*de / kal*ka*rım ↷)
I generally get up at 7.
Her gün ırmak-ta yüz-ü.yor-um.
(her / gün / ır*mak*ta / yü*zü*yo*rum)
I swim in the river everyday.
As it is seen in the example sentences above, the (“k”, “r” and the (“z”, “r”)
consonants detach from their morphemes and attach to the following “a”, “ı”
and “ü”, “u” vowels. You can see how the oral sequences change in the oral
sequences given between parentheses below the morphemic sequences.
3: Some vowels at the ends of verbs or allomorphs drop (overlooked)
these vowels and the consonants before them attaches to the following
vowels of the morphemes. The dropped vowels are always written black:
Maç başla-ı.yor.
(maç / baş*lı*yor)
The game is starting.
Patates pure-/s/i sev-me-i.yor-um.
(pa*ta*tes / pü*re*si / sev*mi*yo*rum ↷)
I do not like mashed potatoes.
Çocuk-lar bekle-i.yor.
(ço*cuk*lar / bek*li*yor)
The children are waiting.
gel-me-i.yor (gel*mi*yor), oku-ma-u.yor (o*ku*mu*yor), bekle-me-i.yor
(bek*le*mi*yor), çalış-ma-ı.yor (ça*lış*mı*yor), gül-me-ü.yor (gül*mü*yor),
ertele-me-i.yor (er*te*le*mi*yor).
Jack bahçe-de oyna-u.yor.
(Jack / bah*çe*de / oy*nu*yor ↷)
Jack is playing in the garden. (The /a/ drops, and the /n/ ataches to /u/.)

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All Turkish sentences have subject allomorphs, except for the simple pre-
sent tense, printed blue attached to verbs. These subject allomorphs
carry the meanings of the subject pronouns, which are optional elements
in Turkish. The subject pronouns used in the beginning of Turkish
sentences are only used when someone wants to emphasize them.
There are a few example sentences below having subject allomorphs
printed blue. Furthermore, you can find hundreds of sentences on the
internet to learn in my free book titled “English Turkish Grammar Func-
tional and Transformational, Yuksel Goknel”
Yüz-er-im. (yü*ze*rim ↷) I swim. (The “im, ım, üm, um” mean “I”.)
Bekle-er-im. (bek*le*rim ↷) I wait.
Anla-ar-ım. (an*la*rım ↷) I understand.
Yüz-er-sin. (yü*zer*sin ↷) You swim. (The “sin, sın, sün, sun” mean “you”.)
Al-ır-sın. (a*lır*sın ↷) You take, you buy.
Götür-ür-sün. (gö*tü*rür*sün ↷) You take ... to
Yüz-er. (yü*zer ↷) He (she, it) swims.
Al-ır. (a*lır ↷ ) He (she) takes. He (she) buys.
Yüz-er-iz. (yü*ze*riz ↷) We swim. (The “iz, ız, üz, uz” mean “we”.)
Al-ır-ız. (a*lı*rız ↷) We take or buy.
Götür-ür-üz. (gö*tü*rü*rüz ↷) We take ... to.
Yüz-er-sin.iz. (yü*zer*si*niz ↷) You swim. (The “sin-iz”, “sın-ız”, “sün-
üz”, “sun-uz” mean “you”.)
Al-ır-sın.ız. (a*lır*sı*nız ↷) You take or buy.
Götür-ür-sün.üz. (gö*tü*rür*sü*nüz ↷) You take ... to
Yüz-er-ler. (yü*zer*ler ↷) They swim. (The “ler”, “lar” mean “they”.)
Al-ır-lar. (a*lır*lar ↷) They take or buy.
Sakla-ar-lar. (sak*lar*lar ↷) They hide.
The colored underlines and words show the following:
1. Subjects and subject allomorphs are blue.
2. Verbs are red.
3. Objects, nouns, coordinating conjunctions and noun clauses are
black.
4. Prepositions, adverbs, adverbials, adverbial phrases and clauses,
and subordinating conjunctions are green.
5. Subject and object complements are brown.
6. Adjectives, articles and noun modifiers are purple.
Note: There are no oral sequences in this article. You can find them follow-
ing the underlined consonants, dropped black vowels and joined vowels.

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INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES IN ENGLLISH AND TURKISH
There are four kinds of interrogative sentences in Turkish:
1. The “yes” or “no” questions whose answers are either “yes” or “no”.
2. The choice questions which expect alternative answers.
3. The tag questions which are tagged after positive or negative sentences.
4. The question words that are put in positive or negative sentences.
1. The question allomorphs of the “yes” or “no” questions in Turkish are ♫
[mi, mı, mü, mu], which are used together with subject allomorphs, and
moreover, they are used separately after a positive or a negative sentence.
The tenses which have single inflectional time allomorphs:
Siz-e yardım et-e.bil-ir-im. I can help you. (e*de*bi*li*rim)
Siz-e yardım et-e.bil-ir mi-/y/im? Can I help you?
Biz-e yardım et-er-sin. You help us.
Biz-e yardım et-er mi-sin? Do you help us?
Yarın Ankara-/y/a git-e.cek-sin. You will go to Ankara tomorrow.
Yarın Ankara-/y/a git-e.cek mi-sin? Will you go to Ankara tomorrow?
Bana yardım et-e.bil-ir-sin. You can help me.
Bana yardım et-e.bil-ir mi-sin? Can you help me?
Bura-/y/a gel-e.mez-sin. You can’t come here.
Bura-/y/a gel-e.mez mi-sin? Can’t you come here?
Türkçe öğren-i.yor-sun. You are learning Turkish.
Türkçe öğren-i.yor mu-sun? Are you learning Turkish?
Bütün gece televizyon seyret-i.yor-sun. You are watching T.V. all night
long.
Bütün gece televizyon seyret-i.yor mu-sun? Are you watching T.V. all
night long?
Ödev-im-i yap-ma-mış-ım. They say that I didn’t do my homework.
Ödev-im-i yap-ma-mış mı-/y/ım? Do they say that I didn’t do my
homework?
Dün Türkçe çalış-tı-ım. I studied Turkish yesterday.
Dün Türkçe çalış-tı-ım mı? Did I study Turkish yesterday?
Dün sen okul-a git-me-di-in. You didn’t go to school yesterday.
Dün sen okul-a git-me-di-in mi? Didn’t you go to school yesterday?

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Sana yardım ed-e-/y/im. Let me help you.
Sana yardım et-e-/y/im mi? Shall I help you?
Sana yardım et-sin. Let him help you.
Sana yardım et-sin mi? Do you want him to help you?
The interrogative sentences above have single time allomorphs. However,
the following interrogative sentences have double time allomorphs.
The tenses which have double inflectional time allomorphs are as follows:
Uyu-u.yor-du-um. I was sleeping.
Uyu-u.yor mu/y/-du-um? Was I sleeping?
Gel-i.yor-du-un. You were coming.
Gel-i.yor mu/y/-du-un? Were you coming?
Koş-u.yor-du. He was running.
Koş-u.yor mu/y/-du? Was he running?
Gül-ü.yor-du-uk. We were laughing.
Gül-ü.yor mu/y/-du-uk? Were we laughing?
Çalış-ı.yor-du-un-uz. You were working.
Çalış-ı.yor mu/y/-du-un-uz? Were you working?
Konuş-u.yor-lar-dı. They were talking.
Konuş-u.yor mu/y/-du-lar? Were they talking?
O kitap-ı oku-muş-tu-um. I had read that book.
O kitap-ı oku-muş mu/y/-du-um. Had I read that book?
Yanlış-lar-ı düzelt-miş-ti-in. You had corrected the mistakes.
Yanlış-lar-ı düzelt-miş mi/y/-di-in? Had you corrected the mistakes?
Yat-mış-tı. He had gone to bed.
Yat-mış mı/y/-dı? Had he gone to bed?
Sorun-u çöz-müş-tü-ük. We had solved the problem.
Sorun-u çöz-me-miş mi/y/-di-ik? Hadn’t we solved the problem?
Toplantı-/y/ı ertele-me-miş-ti-in.iz. You hadn’t postponed the meeting.
Toplantı-/y/ı ertele-me-miş mi/y/-di-in-iz? Hadn’t you postponed the meeting?
Biz-e yardım et-miş-ler-di. They had helped us.
Biz-e yardım et-miş mi/y/-di-ler? Had they helped us?

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Okul-a git-i.yor-du-un. You were going to school.
Okul-a git-i.yor mu/y/-du-un? Were you going to school?
2. The choice questions which expects alternative answers:
Çay mı, kahve mi iç-mek iste-er-sin-iz? Çay, lütfen.
Would you like to have tea or coffee? Tea, please.
Ahmet Mersin-e mi, yoksa Adana-/y/a mı git-ti? Adana-/y/a git-ti.
Did Ahmet go to Mersin or Adana? He went to Adana.
3. The tag questions which are tagged after positive or negative
sentences:
Ödev-in-i yap-tı-ın, değil mi?
You have done your homework, haven’t you?
Ahmet dün okul-a git-me-di, değil mi?
Ahmet didn’t go to school yesterday, did he?
Pop müzik sev-me-i.yor-sun, değil mi?
You don’t like pop music, do you?
Bisiklet-in var, değil mi?
You have got a bicycle, haven’t you?
As it is seen above, all the Turkish positive and negative sentences have got
“değil mi?” tag questions. In English, however, if the sentence is positive, a
negative tag question is used. If the sentence is negative, a positive tag
question is used.
4. The question words which are inserted in positive and negative
sentences.
The interrogative English sentences having question words and the Turkish
interrogative sentences having question words are structurally different from
each other. When question words such as, “how”, “when”, “why”,
“where”, etc. is used in the beginning of a positive or a negative English
sentence, they change the positive or negative sentence orders into
interrogative forms. For instance:
When did Jack go to London?
Where is Jack going?
How often does Jack visit his grandfather?

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Why hasn’t Jack come home yet?
How will Jack overcome the difficulties?
As it is seen, all the interrogative sentences starting with question words in
English are in interrogative forms, such as:
Did Jack go?, Is Jack going?, Does Jack visit?, Hasn’t Jack come?,
Will Jack overcome?
Only when the question words “who?” and “what?” are used starting the
interrogative sentences, they do not change the sentence orders into the
interrogative forms:
Who postponed the meeting?
What fell from the ceiling?
However, if “who?” and “what?” ask the objects, the rest of the sentences
are in interrogative forms:
Who did Jack meet in the garden?
What did Jack drop on the floor?
The places of question words in interrogative sentences in Turkish and Eng-
lish are quite different from each other. Although English question words
are placed in the beginning of all interrogative sentences, Turkish question
words can be put in positive or negative sentences without changing their
positive or negative sentence orders.
This characteristic of the Turkish interrogative sentence order helps to im-
prove the meaning of the interrogative sentences because the nearer a
question word is to the verb of an interrogative sentence, the more impor-
tance it gains. Compare the English interrogative sentences with the English
ones:
Bu soru-/y/a cevap ver-mek iste-i.yor. (“cevap ver-mek” is an infinitive.)
He wants to answer this question. (“to answer” is an infinitive.)
Kim bu soru-/y/a cevap ver-mek iste-i.yor? (is*ti*yor)
Who wants to answer this question?
Bu soru-/y/a kim cevap ver-mek iste-i.yor?
Who wants to answer this question?
(O) dün okul-a gel-me-di.
He didn’t come to school yesterday.

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Kim dün okul-a gel-me-di?
Who didn’t come to school yesterday?
Dün kim okul-a gel-me-di?
Who didn’t come to school yesterday?
Dün okul-a kim gel-me-di?
Who didn’t come to school yesterday?
Ahmet okul-a gel-me-di.
Ahmet didn’t come to school.
Ne zaman Ahmet okul-a gel-me-di?
When didn’t Ahmet come to school?
Ahmet ne zaman okul-a gel-me-di?
When didn’t Ahmet come to school?
Ahmet okul-a ne zaman gel-me-di?
When didn’t Ahmet come to school?
Ödev-in-i yap-ma-dı-ın.
You didn’t do your homework.
Niçin ödev-in-i yap-ma-dı-ın?
Why didn’t you do your homework?
Ödev-in-i niçin yap-ma-dı-ın?
Why didn’t you do your homework?
Ankara'/y/a git-ti-in.
You went to Ankara.
Neyle Ankara'/y/a git-ti-in?
How did you go to Ankara?
Ankara'/y/a neyle git-ti-in?
How did you go to Ankara?
Yarın git-e.cek-sin.iz.
You will go tomorrow.
Yarın nereye git-e.cek-sin.iz?
Where will you go tomorrow?
Yarın nereye ve neyle git-e.cek-sin.iz?
Where and how will you go tomorrow?

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Yarın nereye, nasıl ve kimle git-e.cek-sin.iz?
Where, how and with whom will you go tomorrow?
Ayşe dün supermarket-e otobüs-le git-ti.
Ayşe went to the supermarket by bus yesterday.
Niçin Ayşe dün otobüs-le supermarket-e git-ti?
Why did Ayşe go to the supermarket by bus?
Ayşe niçin dün otobüs-le supermarket-e git-ti?
Why did Ayşe go to the supermarket by bus?
Ayşe dün niçin otobüs-le supermarket-e git-ti?
Why did Ayşe go to the supermarket by bus?
Ayşe dün supermarket-e niçin otobüs-le git-ti?
Why did Ayşe go to the supermarket by bus?
Ayşe dün supermarket-e otobüs-le niçin git-ti?
Why did Ayşe go to the supermarket by bus?
The question allomorphs [mi, mı, mü, mu], which ask whether the answer is
“yes” or “no” can also be used after the stressed words:
Ayşe mi dün supermarket-e otobüs-le git-ti?
Did Ayşe go to the supermarket by bus yesterday?
Ayşe dün mü supermarket-e otobüs-le git-ti?
Did Ayşe go to the supermarket by bus yesterday?
Ayşe dün supermarket-e mi otobüs-le git-ti?
Did Ayşe go to the supermarket by bus yesterday?
Ayşe dün supermarket-e otobüs-le mi git-ti?
Did Ayşe go to the supermarket by bus yesterday?
Ayşe dün supermarket-e otobüs-le git-ti mi?
Did Ayşe go to the supermarket by bus yesterday?
As it is seen in the examples given above, the allomorphs of the morpheme
[Mİ]: ♫ [mi, mı, mü, mu], are used following the important words in the
sentences. The primarily stressed syllables of these important words and the
allomorphs of [Mİ] are written green.

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QUESTION WORDS
The question words in Turkish are of three kinds: basic question words,
which have no inflectional allomorphs attached to them, and the basic
question words that are suffixed by the inflectional allomorphs [i, ı, ü, u], [e,
a], [de, da, te, ta], [den, dan, ten, tan], and [le, la], and the basic question
words that are followed by postpositions.
BASIC QUESTION WORDS
Kim? (who?) asks the personal subject.
Maç-a kim git-ti? Who went to the match?
Kalem-im-i kim al-dı? Who took my pencil?
Bu soru-/y/a kim cevap ver-e.cek? Who will answer this question?
Kim haklı? Who is right?
Bu soru-/y/u kim sor-du? Who asked this question?
Ne? (what?) asks the subject or the indefinite object.
Balkon-dan ne düş-tü? What fell from the balcony?
Bakkal-dan ne al-dı-ın? What did you buy from the grocer?
Sana ne ver-di? What did he give you?
Ne sakla-ı.yor-sun? What are you hiding?
Ne bil-i.yor-sun? What do you know?
Ne düşün-ü.yor-sun? What are you thinking about?
Nasıl? (how?) asks what instruments the subject uses, under what condi-
tions the subject does something, or asks after the health of the subject, etc.
Cüzdan-ın-ı nasıl bul-du-un? How did you find your purse?
Ankara'/y/a nasıl git-ti-in? How did you go to Ankara?
Bu kravat nasıl? How is this necktie?
Bu nasıl bir araba? What kind of car is this?
Nasıl-sın? How are you?
Nasıl becer-di-in? How did you manage?
Nasıl başar-a.bil-ir-im? How can I succeed? (ba*şa*ra*bi*li*rim)
Niçin? (why?) asks the cause of a verb.
Niçin koş-u.yor-sun? Why are you running?
Okul-a niçin gel-me-di-in? Why didn’t you come to school?
Ödev-in-i niçin yap-ma-dı-ın? Why didn’t you do your homework?
Niçin yalan söyle-di-in? Why did you lie?

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Niçin ben-i dinle-me-di-in? Why didn’t you listen to me?
Niçin ağla-ı.yor-sun? Why are you crying?
Onu niçin beğen-me-di-in? Why didn’t you like it?
THE QUESTION WORDS WITH THE [İ], [E], [DE], [DEN] and [LE]
MORPHEMES
The allomorph [i] asks the definite objects when they are attached to “kim?”
(who?), and “ne?” (what?) basic question words.
Kim-i? (whom?)The question word “kim-i” asks the definite personal object:
Sokak-ta kim-i gör-dü-ün? Whom (who) did you see in the street?
Kim-i bekle-i.yor-sun? Who (whom) are you waiting?
Kim-i ara-ı.yor-sun? Who are you looking for?
Öğretmen kim-i seç-ti? Who did the teacher choose?
Ne-/y/i? (what?) asks the definite object:
Ne-/y/i anla-ma-dı-ın? What didn’t you understand?
Kim-e? (who?) The question “kim-e” asks to whom the action is directed:
Kim-e bak-ı.yor-sun? Who are you looking at?
Kim-e söyle-di-in? Who did you tell it?
Kim-e sor-du-un? Who did you ask?
Bu-/n/u kim-e ver-eyi-im? Who shall I give this?
Kim-e güven-i.yor-sun? Who do you trust?
Kaç? (how many?) This interrogative adjective asks the number of people
or things:
Sınıf-ta kaç öğrenci var? How many students are there in this class?
Kaç tane elma ye-di-in? How many apples did you eat?
Kaç kez Londra'/y/a git-ti-in? How many times did you go to London?
Sen-i kaç kez uyar-dı-ım? How many times did I warn you?
Bu gömlek kaç lira? How much is this shirt?
Kaça? (how much?) This question word asks the price of something:
Bu kaça? How much is this?
Bu gömlek kaça? How much is this shirt?
Bunu kaça al-dı-ın? How much did you pay for it?
Araba-an-a kaç para istiyorsun? How much do you want for your car?
Kaçta? (what time?) This question word asks the time of an action:

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Sabah-le.yin kaçta kalk-ı.yor-sun? What time do you get up in the morning?
Kaçta gel-e/y/im? What time do you want me to come?
İş-i kaçta bitir-ebil-ir-ler? What time can they finish the work?
Aksam ev-e kaçta gel-di-in? What time did you come home at night?
Saat kaçta buluş-al-ım? What time shall we meet?
Kim-de? (whose turn?):
Bulaşık-lar-ı yıka-ma sıra-/s/ı kim-de? Whose turn is it to wash the dishes?
Soru-/y/a cevap ver-me sıra-/s/ı kim-de? Whose turn is it to answer the question?
Kim-den? This question word expresses from whom an action starts:
Haber-i kim-den al-dı-ın? From whom did you get the news?
Kim-den kork-u.yor-sun? Who are you afraid of?
Bu söylenti kim-den çık-tı? From whom did this rumor emerge?
Neden? (why?) This question word asks the reason of an action:
Neden bana sor-ma-dı-ın? Why didn’t you ask me?
Neden sınav-a gir-me-di-in? Why didn’t you take the examination?
Neden biz-e bildir-me-di-in? Why didn’t you tell us?
Neden sus-u.yor-sun? Why do you keep quite?
Ödev-i-/n/i neden yap-ma-dı-ın? Why didn’t you do your homework?
Kim-le? This question word asks with whom an action is done:
Maç-a kim-le git-ti-in? With whom did you go to the match?
Program-ı kim-le hazırla-dı-ın? With whom did you prepare the program?
Bu sorun-u kim-le tartış-tı-ın? With whom did you discuss this problem?
Kim-le konuş-tuk-un-u bil-i.yor mu-sun? Do you know who you are talking to?
Ne ile? (ney*le) This question word asks how an action is carried out.
Trabzon'-a ne/y/-le git-e.cek-sin? How will you go to Trabzon?
Kapı-/y/ı ne/y/-le aç-mış-lar? How did they open the door?
Cam-lar-ı ne/y/-le sil-i.yor-sun? How do you clean the panes with?
Ev-in.iz-i ne/y/-le ısıt-ı.yor-sun.uz? How do you heat your house?
Nere-/y/e? This question word asks the destination of an action:
Nere-/y/e git-i.yor-uz? Where are we going? (gi*di*yo*ruz)
Nere-/y/e git-e.li-im? Where shall we go? (gi*de*lim)
Bilgisayar-ım-ı nere-/y/e sakla-dı-ın? Where did you hide my computer?
Nere-ye git-mek iste-i.yor-sun? Where do you want to go?

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Nere-de? (ne*re*de) (where?)This question word asks where something is,
or where an action is done:
Bu çanta-/y/ı nere-de bul-du-un? Where did you find this beg?
Otobüs-ten nere-de in-e.cek-sin? Where will you get down the bus?
Şimdi nere-de-/y/iz? Where are we now?
Araba-an nere-de? Where is your car?
Nere-de buluş-al-ım? Where shall we meet?
Nere-den? (ne*re*den) (from where?) This question word asks from where
an action starts:
Nere-den gel-i.yor-sun? Where are you coming from?
Nere-den anla-dı-ın? How did you understand?
Nere-den başla-/y/ım? From where do you want me to begin?
Nere-den bil-e-/y/im? How do I know?
Bu saksı nere-den düş-tü? From where did this flower pot fall?
Hangi? (which) This question word asks the determiner:
Hangi çocuk? Bu çocuk. Which boy? This boy.
Hangi çocuk? Sen-in sözet-tik-in çocuk. (sö*zet*ti*ğin)
Which boy? The boy that you talked about.
Hangi kitap? Dün oku-duk-un kitap.
Which book? The book that you read yesterday.
Note: The black underlined words above are nouns, and the purple
underlined words are noun modifiers (adjectives).
Hangi-/s/i? (which one?) This question asks to choose one of the things or
people.
Hangi-/s/i daha ucuz? Which one is more economical?
Hangi-/s/i-/n/i tercih et-i.yor-sun? Which one do you prefer?
THE QUESTION WORDS FOLLOWED BY POSTPOSITIONS
Kim için? (for whom?) (interrogative adverbial phrase):
Bu çiçek-ler-i kim için al-dı-ın?
Who did you buy these flowers for?
Kim için çalış-ı.yor-sun? Who are you working for?
Niçin? (ni*çin) (why?) This question word asks the cause of an action:

17. INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES IN ENGLISH AND TURKISH
17
Bura-/y/a niçin gel-di-in? Why did you come here?
Niçin gül-ü.yor-sun? Why are you laughing?
Bil-dik-in-i niçin sakla-ı.yor-sun? Why do you hide what you know?
Kim tarafından? (by whom):
Bu şarkı kim tarafından bestele-en-di? Who was this song composed by?
Bu problem kim tarafından çöz-ül-e.cek? Who is this problem going to
be solved by?
Kim / ne hakkında? (about whom/what?):
Kim hakkında dedikodu et-iyor-sun.uz? Who are you gossiping about?
Ne hakkında düşün-ü.yor-sun? What are you thinking about?
Ne kadar? (how long?), (how much?) This interrogative adverbial phrase
asks the duration of an action, or the price of something:
Amerikada ne kadar kaldın? How long did you stay in the U.S.A.?
Bu gömlek ne kadar? How much is this shirt?
Ne kadar bekledin? How long did you wait?
Bu eski araban için ne kadar istiyorsun?
How much do you want for your old car?
Kaç saat? (how many hours?), Kaç gün? (how many days?), Kaç yıl?
(how many years?), Kaç dakika? (how many minutes?), Kaç kez? (how
many times?)
Kaç saat bekle-di-in?
How many hours did you wait?
Bu iş-i kaç saat-te bitir-e.bil-ir-sin?
How many hours does it take you to finish this work?
Bu çiçek-ler-i gün-de kaç kez sula-u.yor-sun?
How many times a day do you water these flowers?
Ne zaman? (when?) This question asks the time of an action:
Ne zaman gel-e.cek-sin? When will you come?
Ne zaman bitir-e.bil-ir-sin? When can you finish it?
Araba-an-ı ne zaman tamir ettir-e.cek-sin? When will you get your car
repaired?
Ne zaman dön-e.cek-sin? When will you come back?
Saat kaç-tan beri? (since what time?):

18. INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES IN ENGLISH AND TURKISH
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Saat kaç-tan beri telefon-la konuş-u.yor-sun?
Since what time have you been talking on the telephone?
Saat kaç-tan beri bura-da-sın?
Since what time have you been here?
Ne zaman-a dek (kadar)? (until what time?):
Ne zaman-a kadar bura-da bekle-/y/e.cek-iz? Until what time shall we
wait here? Ne zaman-a kadar ev-de-sin? Until what time will you be at
home?
The single underlined “k” and “t” consonants both detach from their
allomorphs and change to their voiced forms ”ğ” and “d”.