Interrogative sentences in turkish, yuksel goknel signed

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2014

INTERROGATIVE

SENTENCES

IN TURKISH

Yüksel Göknel

INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES IN TURKISH

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INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES IN 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 expects 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 personal allomorphs, and

moreover, they are used separately after a positive or a negative sentence.

The tenses which have single inflectional time allomorphs:

(Ben) siz-e yardım et-e.bil-ir-im. I can help you.

(Ben) siz-e yardım et-e.bil-ir mi-/y/im? Can I help you?

(Sen) biz-e yardım et-er-sin. You help us.

(Sen) biz-e yardım et-er mi-sin? Do you help us?

(Sen) yarın toplantı-/y/a git-e.cek-sin. You will go to the meeting tomorrow.

(Sen) yarın toplantı-/y/a git-e.cek mi-sin? Will you go to the meeting tomorrow?

(Sen) bana yardım et-e.bil-ir-sin. You can help me.

(Sen) bana yardım et-e.bil-ir mi-sin? Can you help me?

(Sen) bura-/y/ gel-e.mez-sin. You can’t come here.

(Sen) bura-/y/a gel-e.mez mi-sin? Can’t you come here?

(Sen) Türkçe öğren-i.yor-sun. You are learning Turkish.

(Sen) Türkçe öğren-i.yor mu-sun? Are you learning Turkish?

(Sen) bütün gece televizyon seyret-i.yor-sun. You are watching T.V. all night

long.

(Sen) bütün gece televizyon seyret-i.yor mu-sun? Are you watching televi-

sion all night long?

(Ben) ödev-im-i yap-ma-mış-ım. They say that I didn’t do my homework.

(Ben) ödev-im-i yap-ma-mış mı-/y/ım? Do they say that I didn’t do my home

work?

Ben dün Türkçe çalış-tı-ım. I studied Turkish yesterday.

Ben 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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(Ben) sana yardım ed-e-/y/im. Let me help you.

(Ben) sana yardım et-e-/y/im mi? Shall I help you?

(O) sana yardım et-sin. Let him help you.

(O) sana yardım et-sin mi? Do you want him to help you? The interrogative sentences above have single inflectional time allomorphs.

However, the following interrogative sentences have double time inflectional

allomorphs.

The tenses which have double inflectional time allomorphs: (Ben) uyu-u.yor-du-um. I was sleeping.

(Ben) uyu-u.yor mu/y/-du-um? Was I sleeping?

(Sen) gel-i.yor-du-un. You were coming.

(Sen) gel-i.yor mu/y/-du-un? Were you coming?

(O) koş-u.yor-du. He was running.

(O) koş-u.yor mu/y/-du? Was he running?

(Biz) gül-ü.yor-du-uk. We were laughing.

(Biz) gül-ü.yor mu/y/-du-uk? Were we laughing?

(Siz) çalış-ı.yor-du-un-uz. You were working.

(Siz) çalış-ı.yor mu/y/-du-un-uz? Were you working?

(Onlar) konuş-u.yor-lar-dı. They were talking.

(Onlar) konuş-u.yor mu/y/-du-lar? Were they talking?

(Ben) o kitap-ı oku-muş-tu-um. I had read that book.

(Ben) o kitap-ı oku-muş mu/y/-du-um. Had I read that book?

(Sen) yanlış-lar-ı düzelt-miş-ti-in. You had corrected the mistakes.

(Sen) yanlış-lar-ı düzelt-miş mi/y/-di-in? Had you corrected the mistakes?

(O) yat-mış-tı. He had gone to bed.

(O) yat-mış mı/y/-dı? Had he gone to bed?

(Biz) sorun-u çöz-müş-tü-ük. We had solved the problem.

(Biz) sorun-u çöz-me-miş mi/y/-di-ik? Hadn’t we solved the problem?

(Siz) toplantı-/y/ı ertele-me-miş-ti-in-iz. You hadn’t postponed the meeting.

(Siz) toplantı-/y/ı ertele-me-miş mi/y/-di-in-iz? Hadn’t you postponed the …?


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(Onlar) biz-e yardım et-miş-ler-di. They had helped us.

(Onlar) biz-e yardım et-miş mi/y/-di-ler? Had they helped us?

(Sen) okul-a git-i.yor-du-un. You were going to school.

(Sen) okul-a git-i.yor mu/y/-du-un? Were you going to school?

2. The choice questions which expects alternative answers: (Siz) 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/ git-ti.

Did Ahmet go to Mersin or Adana? He went to Adana.

3. The tag questions which are tagged after positive or negative sen-

tences: (Sen) 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?

(Sen) 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 sentence, they

change the positive or negative sentence orders into interrogative forms. For

instance:


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When did Jack go to London?

Where is Jack going?

How often does Jack visit his grandfather?

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 are

in interrogative form, 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 inter-

rogative sentences, they do not change the sentence order into the interro-

gative form:

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

importance it gains. Compare the English interrogative sentences with the

English ones:

(O) bu soru-/y/a cevap ver-mek iste-i.yor. (is*ti*yor)

He wants to answer this question.

Kim bu soruya cevap vermek istiyor?

Who wants to answer this question?

Bu soruya kim cevap vermek istiyor?

Who wants to answer this question?


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(O)dün okula gelmedi.

He didn’t come to school yesterday.

Kim dün okula gelmedi?

Who didn’t come to school yesterday?

Dün kim okula gelmedi?


Dün okula kim gelmedi?


Ahmet okula gelmedi.

Ahmet didn’t come to school.

Ne zaman Ahmet okula gelmedi?

When didn’t Ahmet come to school? Ahmet ne zaman okula gelmedi?

When didn’t Ahmet come to school?

Ahmet okula ne zaman gelmedi?

When didn’t Ahmet come to school?

Ödevini yapmadın.

You didn’t do your homework.

Niçin ödevini yapmadın?

Why didn’t you do your homework?

Ödevini niçin yapmadın?

Why didn’t you do your homework? Ankara'ya gittin.

You went to Ankara. Neyle Ankara'ya gittin?

How did you go to Ankara?

Ankara'ya neyle gittin?

How did you go to Ankara?

Yarın gideceksiniz.

You will go tomorrow. Yarın nereye gideceksiniz?

Where will you go tomorrow?


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Yarın nereye, neyle gideceksiniz?

Where and how will you go tomorrow?

Yarın nereye, nasıl ve kimle gideceksiniz?

Where, how and with whom will you go tomorrow? Ayşe dün supermarket otobüsle gitti.

Ayşe went to the supermarket by bus.

Niçin Ayşe dün otobüsle süpermarkete gitti?

Why did Ayşe go to the supermarket by bus?

Ayşe niçin dün otobüsle süpermarkete gitti?


Ayşe dün niçin otobüsle süpermarkete gitti?

Why did Ayşe do to the supermarket by bus?

Ayşe dün süpermarkete niçin otobüsle gitti?


Ayşe dün supermarkete otobüsle niçin gitti?


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 süpermarkete otobüsle gitti?

Did Ayşe go to the supermarket by bus yesterday?

Ayşe dün mü supermarkete otobüsle gitti?


Ayşe dün supermarkete mi otobüsle gitti?


Ayşe dün supermarkete otobüsle mi gitti?


Ayşe dün supermarkete otobüsle gitti mi?


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 in red.


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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 gitti? Who went to the match?

Kalem-im-i kim aldı? Who took my pencil?

Bu soru-/y/a kim cevap vere-cek? Who will answer this question?

Kim haklı? Who is right?

Bu soru-/y/u kim sordu? Who asked this question?

Ne? (what?) asks the subject or the indefinite object.

Balkon-dan ne düştü? What fell from the balcony?

Bakkal-dan ne aldın? What did you buy from the grocer?

Sana ne verdi? What did he give you?

Ne sak-lıyorsun? What are you hiding?

Ne biliyorsun? What do you know?

Ne düşünüyorsun? What are you thinking about?

Ne sorusu? What kind of question? Sınav sorusu. Examination question.

Nasıl? (how?) asks what instrumens the subject uses, under what condi-

tions the subject does something, or asks after the health of the subject, etc.

Cüzdan-ın-ı nasıl buldun? How did you find your purse?

Ankara'ya nasıl gittin? 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 becerdin? How did you manage?

Nasıl başarabilirim? How can I succeed?

Niçin? (why?) asks the cause of a verb.

Niçin koşuyorsun? Why are you running?


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Okul-a niçin gelmedin? Why didn’t you come to school?

Ödev-in-i niçin yapmadın? Why didn’t you do your homework?

Niçin yalan söyledin? Why did you lie?

Niçin ben-i dinlemedin? Why didn’t you listen to me?

Niçin ağlıyorsun? Why are you crying?

Onu niçin beğenmedin? 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 objective person: Sokak-ta kim-i gördün? Whom (who) did you see in the street? (ki*mi)

Kim-i bekliyorsun? Who (whom) are you waiting?

Kim-i arıyorsun? Who are you looking for?

Öğretmen kim-i seçti? Who did the teacher choose?

Ne-/y/i? (what?) asks the definite object: Ne-/y/i anlamadın? What didn’t you understand? (ne*yi)

Kim-e? (who?) The question “kim-e” asks to whom the action is directed:

Kim-e bakıyorsun? Who are you looking at? (ki*me)

Kim-e söyledin? Who did you tell it?

Kim-e sordun? Who did you ask?

Bu-/n/u kim-e vereyim? Who shall I give this?

Kim-e güveniyorsun? Who do you trust?

Kaç? (how many?) This interrogative adjective asks the number of people

or things:

Sınıfta kaç kişi var? How many students are there in this class?

Kaç tane elma yedin? How many apples did you eat?

Kaç kez Londra'ya gittin? How many times did you go to London?

Sen-i kaç kez uyardım? How many times did I warn you?

Bu gömlek kaç lira? How much is this shirt?

Kaç-a? (how much?) This question word asks the price of something:

Bu kaç-a? How much is this?

Bu gömlek kaç-a? How much is this shirt?


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Bunu kaç-a aldın? How much did you pay for it?

Arabana kaç para istiyorsun? How much do you want for your car?

Kaç-ta? (what time?) This question word asks the time of an action: Sabahleyin kaç-ta kalkıyorsun? What time do you get up in the morning?

Kaç-ta geleyim? What time do you want me to come?

İşi kaç-ta bitirebilirler? What time can they finish the work?

Aksam ev-e kaç-ta geldin? What time did you come home?

Saat kaç-ta buluşalım? What time shall we meet?

Kim-de? (whose turn?):

Bulaşıkları yıkama sırası kim-de? Whose turn is it to wash the dishes?

Soruya cevap verme sırası 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 aldın? From whom did you get the news?

Kim-den korku-yorsun? Who are you afraid of?

Bu söylenti kim-den çıktı? From whom did this rumor emerge?

Ne-den? (why?) This question word asks the reason of an action:

Ne-den bana sormadın? Why didn’t you ask me?

Ne-den sınav-a girmedin? Why didn’t you take the examination?

Ne-den biz-e bildirmedin? Why didn’t you tell us?

Ne-den susuyorsun? Why do you keep quite?

Ödev-i-/n/i ne-den yapmadın? Why didn’t you do your homework?

Kim-le? This question word asks with whom an action is done:

Maç-a kim-le gittin? With whom did you go to the match?

Program-ı kim-le hazırladın? With whom did you prepare the program?

Bu sorun-u kim-le tartıştın? Who did you discuss this problem with?

Kim-le konuştu-ğunu biliyor musun? 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 gideceksin? How will you go to Trabzon?

Kapı-/y/ı ne/y/-le açmışlar? How did they open the door?

Cam-lar-ı ne/y/-le siliyorsun? How do you clean the panes with?

Ev-i ne/y/-le ısıtıyorsunuz? How do you heat your house?

Nere-/y/e? This question word asks the destination of an action:


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Nere-/y/e gidiyoruz? Where are we going?

Nere/y/e gide-lim? Where shall we go?

Bilgisayarımı nere-/y/e sakladın? Where did you hide my computer?

Nere-ye gitmek istiyorsun? Where do you want to go?

Nere-de? (ne*re*de) (where?)This question word asks where something is,

and where an action is done: Bu çanta-/y/ı nere-de buldun? Where did you find this beg?

Otobüs-ten nere-de ineceksin? 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 buluşalım? Where shall we meet?

Nere-den? (ne*re*den) (from where?) This question word asks from where

an action starts: Nere-den geliyorsun? Where are you coming from?

Nere-den anladın? How did you understand?

Nere-den başlayım? From where do you want me to begin?

Nere-den bileyim? How do I know?

Bu saksı nere-den düştü? 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? Senin sözettiğin çocuk.

Which boy? The boy that you talked about.

Hangi kitap? Dün okuduğun kitap.

Which book? The book that you read yesterday. Note: The words and groups of words written in bold face are determiners.

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 diyorsun? Which one do you prefer?

THE QUESTION WORDS FOLLOWED BY POSTPOSITIONS

Kim için? (for whom?) (interrogative adverbial phrase): Bu çiçekleri kim için aldın?

Who did you buy these flowers for?


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Kim için çalışıyorsun? Who are you working for?

Niçin? (ni*çin) (why?) This question word asks the cause of an action: Bura-/y/a niçin geldin? Why did you come here?

Niçin gülüyorsun? Why are you laughing?

Bildiğini niçin saklıyorsun? Why do you hide what you know?

Kim tarafından? (by whom): Bu şarkı kim tarafından bestelendi? Who was this song composed by?

Bu problem kim tarafından çözülecek? Who is this problem going to be

solved by?

Kim / ne hakkında? (about whom/what?): Kim hakkında dedikodu ediyorsunuz? Who are you gossiping about?

Ne hakkında düşünüyorsun? 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 bekledin?

How many hours did you wait? Bu işi kaç saat-te bitirebilirsin?

How many hours does it take you to finish this work?

Bu çiçekleri günde kaç kez suluyorsun?

How many times a day do you water these flowers?

Ne zaman? (when?) This question asks the time of an action:

Ne zaman geleceksin? When will you come?

Ne zaman bitirebilirsin? When can you finish it?

Arabanı ne zaman tamir ettireceksin? When will you get your car repaired?

Ne zaman döneceksin? When will you come back?


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Saat kaç-tan beri? (since what time?):

Saat kaç-tan beri telefonla konuşuyorsun?

Since what time have you been talking on the telephone?

Saat kaç-tan beri buradasın?

Since what time have you been here?

Ne zaman-a dek (kadar)? (until what time?):

Ne zaman-a kadar burada bekleyeceğiz? Until what time shall we wait here?

Ne zamana kadar evdesin? Until what time will you be at home?

Yüksel Göknel

Date post:	18-Nov-2014
Category:	Education
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Interrogative sentences in turkish, yuksel goknel signed

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