mu - ?

Although this short word has no meaning alone, it helps the Turkish speakers a lot. Because we make so many questions with the help of it. Let's start to see its all possible uses.

Bu mu? Is this one?

Bunu mu istiyor? He wants this one? 

Bunu istiyor mu? Does he want this one?

In Turkish language we put the questions words after the thing we question as you see in the example above. 

some more examples;

O gidiyor mu? Is he going?

O mu gidiyor? Is it he who is going?

How this works? What is the word order?

When we use this question maker short word "mu", we don't change the normal word order, we just add the word mu after the thing we question as you already see in all examples. 

This one. Bu

Is this one? Bu mu?

He wants this one. Bunu istiyor.

He wants this one? Bunu mu istiyor?

O gidiyor. He is going.

O gidiyor mu? Is he going?

What about the vowel harmony?

mu can be mı, mi, mu, mü

We look at the last vowel of the word that we ask about.

after a,ı --- mı

after e,i --- mi

after o,u --- mu

after ö,ü --- mü

Now please look at the position of "mı,mi,mü" with the help of underlines;

Dün beni okulda gördü. Yesterday he saw me at the school.

Dün beni okulda gördü mü? Did he see me at the school yesterday?

Beni okulda dün mü  gördü? He saw me at the school yesterday?

Dün okulda beni mi gördü? He saw me at the school yesterday?

Dün beni okulda mı gördü? He saw me yesterday at the school?  

And as you may see in these examples, we usually tend to tell the thing we ask about just before the verb in Turkish. This is a general for all kind of sentences. Either it is a question sentence or just a normative sentence, when we want to put emphasis on something, we usually prefer to say it as last word before the verb..

Bugün ben geldim. I came today.

Ben bugün geldim. I came today.

Can I always ask anything adding this word after, even in all tenses?

Yes!

Just some verbs for you in different tenses.

Bu olacak mı? Will it  happen?

Bu olur mu? Can it happen?

Bu oldu mu? Did it happen?

Bu olmuş mu? Did it happen? 

(Related lessons: Indefinite past tense, When to use indefinite past tense)

There is only one exception.

Had it happened? Bu olmuş muydu?

Actually, again you use "mu" but you need to add ydı,ydi,ydu,ydü also.

All these examples were for the third singular subject he/she/it - O. 

All tenses except the past simple require to add personal suffixes after.

Sen gidecek misin? Will you go?

Sen gider misin? Do you go?

Sen gittin mi? Did you go? --- you add the ending to the verb instead.

Sen gitmiş misin? Did you go?

Sen gitmiş miydin? Had you gone? 

Some more sample sentences

O Türk mü? Is he Turkish?

Sen Rus musun? Are you Russian?

Ekmeği masaya koydun mu? Did you put the bread onto the table?

Anahtarını buldun mu? Have you found your key?

Bu filmin sonu mu gerçekten? Is this the end of the movie really? 

Hope you enjoyed and learned some more Turkish with this article. Have a nice day!