Learn how to make questions and question tags in Turkish
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Intro |
|---|
| Michael: How are questions made in Turkish? |
| Dilek: And what about question tags? |
| Michael: At TurkishClass101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Mark and Karen are chatting with their neighbor who invites them to a party. He asks "Are you coming to our party?" |
| Kıvanç Kandıralı: Partimize geliyor musunuz? |
| Dialogue |
| Kıvanç Kandıralı: Partimize geliyor musunuz? |
| Karen Lee: Geliyoruz, değil mi? |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Kıvanç Kandıralı: Partimize geliyor musunuz? |
| Michael: "Are you coming to our party?" |
| Karen Lee: Geliyoruz, değil mi? |
| Michael: "We are coming, aren't we?" |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In this lesson, we will be looking at how questions are made in Turkish. There are three different types of questions: yes or no questions, regular questions, and tag questions. |
| In Turkish, when you ask a question that requires a yes or no answer, you have to add a special question tag to the sentence. The tag changes depending on the last syllable of the word that precedes it according to the 'vowel harmony rules'. There are four tags that are used in questions that require a yes or no answer. Let's hear some examples. The first is |
| Dilek: Kahve sıcak mı? |
| Michael: which means "Is the coffee hot?" Did you notice the tag at the end of the sentence? |
| Dilek: mı |
| Michael: This tag followed the word |
| Dilek: sıcak |
| Michael: And, as you can hear, the last syllable in that word has the vowel: |
| Dilek: a |
| Michael: So, the rule is that, when the last syllable has either the vowel |
| Dilek: a |
| Michael: or - |
| Dilek: ı, |
| Michael: then the tag must be: |
| Dilek: mı |
| Michael: The second tag - |
| Dilek: mi |
| Michael: follows different vowels, namely: |
| Dilek: e |
| Michael: and |
| Dilek: i |
| Michael: Listen to how it works in this question, meaning, "Is the movie good?": |
| Dilek: Film güzel mi? |
| Michael: The third tag is |
| Dilek: mü |
| Michael: This one follows the vowels |
| Dilek: ü |
| Michael: and - |
| Dilek: ö |
| Michael: For example: |
| Dilek: Yusuf Türk mü? |
| Michael: This means "Is Yusuf Turkish?" The last tag we will look at is: |
| Dilek: mu |
| Michael: This one follows the vowels |
| Dilek: u |
| Michael: and - |
| Dilek: o |
| Michael: For example, |
| Dilek: Soğuk mu? |
| Michael: which means "Is it cold?" |
| [Recall] |
| Michael: Now, let's go back to the main dialogue. Do you remember how Mark's neighbor asks, "Are you coming to our party?" |
| [PAUSE 4 SECONDS] |
| Dilek as Kivanc Kandirali: Partimize geliyor musunuz? |
| Michael: This is also a yes-or-no question. Let's take a closer look at the word |
| Dilek: musunuz |
| Michael: Here, the question tag takes the form of a prefix and is attached to the pronoun. |
| Dilek: mu |
| Michael: is the question tag and |
| Dilek: sunuz |
| Michael: is the second person plural pronoun meaning "are you." The difference with the sentences that we had seen before, is that those were nominal sentences, while this is a verbal sentence. Let's hear it one more time |
| Dilek: Partimize geliyor musunuz? |
| Michael: Let's see another similar question, |
| Dilek: İngilizce biliyor musunuz? |
| Michael: which means "Do you speak English?" The first is |
| Dilek: İngilizce biliyor |
| Michael: literally "English know." The next is the question tag attached to the pronoun |
| Dilek: musunuz |
| Michael: which translates to "do you." Let's hear it one more time |
| Dilek: İngilizce biliyor musunuz? |
| Michael: Now, let's see the regular questions, which need the question words. The first is "what," which in Turkish is |
| Dilek: ne |
| Michael: Here is an example question, |
| Dilek: Ne yapıyorsun? |
| Michael: which means "What are you doing?" The second word on our list is "who" or: |
| Dilek: kim |
| Michael: If you want to ask "Who is that?", you must say: |
| Dilek: O kim? |
| Michael: The third question word is "which" or |
| Dilek: hangi. |
| Michael: Let's hear it in a sentence, |
| Dilek: Hangi ekmeği istiyorsun? |
| Michael: which means "Which bread do you want?" The next is the word for "where," which is: |
| Dilek: nere. |
| Michael: For example, |
| Dilek: Yusuf nereye gitti? |
| Michael: which means "Where did Yusuf go?" The fifth question word is "why," which can take two different forms |
| Dilek: neden or niye |
| Michael: Let's hear an example |
| Dilek: Neden bunu yaptın? |
| Michael: which means "Why did you do that?" The next is "when," which sounds like this: |
| Dilek: ne zaman |
| Michael: For example, |
| Dilek: Ne zaman geliyorlar? |
| Michael: which means "When are they coming?" The question word "how" in Turkish is: |
| Dilek: nasil. |
| Michael: Here is an example : |
| Dilek: Bunu nasıl yaptın? |
| Michael: meaning "How do you do that?" |
| Now, let's see the question tags. In Turkish, there is only one question tag, which is: |
| Dilek: değil mi? |
| Michael: For example, |
| Dilek: Bu doğru, değil mi? |
| Michael: which means "This is right, isn't it?"We also heard an example in the main dialogue. Do you remember how Karen says, "We are coming, aren't we?" |
| [PAUSE 4 SECONDS] |
| Dilek as Karen Lee: Geliyoruz, değil mi? |
| Michael: Here, Karen is looking for confirmation from her husband, so she uses the question tag. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you learned how to form regular questions in Turkish using the question words. You also learned that there is only one universal question tag in Turkish. |
| Michael: Furthermore, we talked about the four suffixes that one finds at the end of questions that require a yes or no answer. These are: |
| Dilek: mı, mi, mu, mü |
| Practice Section |
| Michael: Let's review. Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud. Then, repeat after the native speaker focusing on pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how to ask, "Are you coming to our party?" |
| [BEEP. PAUSE 5 SECONDS.] |
| Dilek as Kivanc Kandirali: Partimize geliyor musunuz? |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Dilek as Kivanc Kandirali: Partimize geliyor musunuz? |
| [BEEP. PAUSE 5 SECONDS.] |
| Dilek as Kivanc Kandirali: Partimize geliyor musunuz? |
| Michael: And do you remember how to say, "We are coming, aren't we?" |
| [BEEP. PAUSE 5 SECONDS.] |
| Dilek as Karen Lee: Geliyoruz, değil mi? |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Dilek as Karen Lee: Geliyoruz, değil mi? |
| [BEEP. PAUSE 5 SECONDS.] |
| Dilek as Karen Lee: Geliyoruz, değil mi? |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Dilek: Hoşçakalın! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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