Turkish commonly turns a statement into a yes/no question with the particle mı, written as its own word after whatever you are asking about. It harmonises four ways — mı, mi, mu, mü — to match the vowel before it. In common forms the personal ending joins the particle (Geliyor musun?); after the -di past it stays on the verb (Geldin mi?).
Published 23 September 2026
English asks a yes/no question by rearranging the sentence: it borrows a helper (“Do you know?”, “Does she work?”) or flips subject and verb (“Are you ready?”). Turkish does neither. It keeps the words where they are and drops in one small word — mı — that means, in effect, “I’m asking.” Learn its four vowel forms and where it sits, and you have a useful pattern for everyday questions.
A particle is a short word that does a grammatical job. Here, mı marks a yes/no question. It also has uses outside questions, including emphasis; this lesson focuses on asking and answering. The Türk Dil Kurumu (Turkey’s official language body) writes it as a separate word by convention, and that convention is worth adopting from day one.
The particle is never spelled ma or me. It always takes one of four high vowels, chosen by the last vowel of the word in front of it — the same four-way pattern you meet in vowel harmony. Read the last vowel of the preceding word, and the shape is fixed:
| Last vowel before it | Particle | Example | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| a, ı | mı | Kaldı mı? | Is there any left? |
| e, i | mi | Geldi mi? | Did he come? |
| o, u | mu | Oldu mu? | Is it done? |
| ö, ü | mü | Gördü mü? | Did she see it? |
Four rows, one particle wearing four coats. In these examples, the preceding word already ends in a high vowel, so the particle repeats it: Kaldı mı, geldi mi, oldu mu, gördü mü. With other vowels, use the table: the o in geliyor selects mu, not mo.
For a plain “is this true?” question about the whole sentence, put the particle after the predicate — usually the verb, which in Turkish sits at the end. Nothing else in the sentence moves house:
That last one has no verb at all. Turkish often makes a sentence out of just a noun or adjective — Bu doğru, “this [is] right” — and the particle attaches to it exactly the same way. Öğrenci misin? means “Are you a student?”; Hazır mısın? means “Are you ready?”
Because mı sits right after the thing being questioned, sliding it to a different word shifts what you are actually asking. This is one of Turkish’s neatest tricks, and it is the reason word order matters here even though the content words don’t move:
| Turkish | What it asks |
|---|---|
| Ali yarın İstanbul’a gidiyor mu? | Is Ali going to Istanbul tomorrow? (the whole thing) |
| Ali mi yarın İstanbul’a gidiyor? | Is it Ali who’s going tomorrow? |
| Ali yarın mı İstanbul’a gidiyor? | Is it tomorrow that Ali’s going? |
| Ali yarın İstanbul’a mı gidiyor? | Is it to Istanbul that he’s going? |
Same five words each time; the particle alone decides the focus. English has to add stress or a cleft (“Is it Ali who…”) to do the same work. If word order in Turkish is still settling for you, our piece on why the verb comes last gives the bigger frame.
This is the part learners trip on, so it’s worth slowing down. In the common non-past forms below, the ending that names the person (-um “I”, -sun “you”, and so on) leaves the verb and rides on the particle instead. In the seen-past -di, it does the opposite: it stays welded to the verb, and the particle follows bare.
| Tense | “Are/did you …?” | Ending sits on… |
|---|---|---|
| Present -iyor | Geliyor musun? — Are you coming? | the particle |
| Aorist -ir | Gelir misin? — Would you come? | the particle |
| Future -ecek | Gelecek misin? — Will you come? | the particle |
| Reported past -miş | Gelmiş misin? — Have you (apparently) come? | the particle |
| Seen past -di | Geldin mi? — Did you come? | the verb |
So geliyorsun (“you are coming”) loses its -sun, and the particle picks it up: geliyor musun? But geldin (“you came”) keeps its -n, so the particle just tags along at the end: geldin mi? The table shows the common simple forms. Do not extend its rule to every compound tense: the TDK also gives Gelecek miydi?, with a past copular ending after the particle. For now, practise the present and the simple -di past separately. When in doubt, the present -iyor pattern (…yor musun / muyum / muyuz) is the one to keep ready.
Full run of the present, so you can hear the shape once: Geliyor muyum? (Am I coming?), Geliyor musun?, Geliyor mu?, Geliyor muyuz?, Geliyor musunuz?, Geliyorlar mı? In the “they” example, the plural -lar stays on the verb and the particle follows it: Geliyorlar mı? Do not mechanically move that plural onto the particle.
The bare answers are Evet (yes) and Hayır (no). You can also repeat the relevant verb or predicate to make the answer explicit:
That last pair uses var and yok, the “there is / there isn’t” words that carry Turkish existence and possession; they get their own treatment in var and yok.
In an ordinary information question with ne (what), kim (who), nerede (where) or ne zaman (when), the question word already does the asking. Nereye gidiyorsun? means “Where are you going?” and needs no mı. This is the useful beginner contrast: a yes/no question asks for confirmation; a question word asks for missing information. It is not a rule that the particle can never appear in other constructions: the TDK gives emphatic Güzel mi güzel!, meaning “Really beautiful!”
Watch the particle do several jobs in one short exchange — a whole-sentence question, a focus question, and a noun-sentence question:
— Merhaba. Ayşe evde mi?
— Hayır, değil. Sen Ali misin?
— Evet. Ayşe yarın mı dönüyor?
— Evet, yarın. Bir not bırakır mısın?
— Tabii. Kalem var mı?
In English: “Hello. Is Ayşe home?” — “No, she isn’t. Are you Ali?” — “Yes. Is it tomorrow Ayşe gets back?” — “Yes, tomorrow. Would you leave a note?” — “Of course. Is there a pen?” Five questions using the mi and mı vowel forms. In misin and mısın, the particle also carries the “you” ending.
Turn each statement into the yes/no question asked for. Mind the vowel and where the ending lands. Answers below.
The particle plugs straight into tenses you may already have met: it carries the person ending in the present -iyor, and sits bare after the seen past -di. With those two patterns and the four spellings above, you can ask most of the everyday questions a beginner needs. If you’re mapping the language out from the start, our honest guide to learning Turkish lays out the order that makes each new piece click.
Practise aloud: Geliyor musun? — “Are you coming?” Then change the time: Geldin mi? — “Did you come?” Turkish is coming to Gora. Join the Turkish launch list →