An embedded question is a question tucked inside a bigger sentence: not "Where does he live?" but "I don't know where he lives" or "Tell me whether he's coming." English keeps the embedded question almost intact — it just drops the inversion ("where he lives," not "where does he live") and adds "if/whether" for yes/no questions. Turkish does something structurally different and, at first, surprising: it has no word for "if/whether", and it does not keep a finite question inside. Instead it turns the embedded question into a noun phrase using nominalizing suffixes. This is a B2-level topic that pulls together nominalized complement clauses, the -(y)Ip converb, and the -DIK participle.
The big idea: embedding = nominalizing
Turkish does not embed a clause as a clause. It embeds it as a noun. The verb of the inner question loses its finite endings and is rebuilt with a nominalizer plus a possessive (marking the subject) and, usually, a case ending (marking the inner clause's role in the main sentence). The whole thing then sits in the main clause exactly where an ordinary object noun would sit — typically right before the main verb.
So "I don't know where he lives" is built as "I don't know his living-place," and "Tell me what you want" becomes "Say your-wanting." Once you see embedding as making a noun out of the question, every example below follows the same logic.
Embedded wh-questions: -DIK / -(y)AcAK + possessive
For embedded wh-questions (who, what, where, when, how, why), you keep the question word but nominalize the verb. Use -DIK for past/non-future ("the fact that…") and -(y)AcAK for future ("the fact that … will…"). Add a possessive suffix for the subject and a case ending for the clause's role.
Ne istediğini söyle.
Tell me what you want. (literally: 'say your-wanting-what')
Kim olduğunu bilmiyorum.
I don't know who he is.
Nerede oturduğunu öğren.
Find out where she lives.
Trace one apart. In istediğini: iste- ("want") + -DIK → istedik, whose k softens to ğ before a vowel → istediğ-; + the 2nd-person possessive -in ("your") → istediğin; + accusative -i (because the whole noun phrase is the object of söyle "say") → istediğini. The question word ne simply sits in front. No "do," no inversion, no separate "what-clause" verb.
For future-oriented embedded wh-questions, swap in -(y)AcAK:
Ne zaman geleceğini henüz bilmiyorum.
I don't yet know when he'll come.
Bu parayla ne yapacağını düşün.
Think about what you'll do with this money.
Embedded yes/no questions: the -(y)Ip…-mA pattern for "whether"
Here is the part with no English parallel. There is no Turkish word for "whether" or "if" in this sense. To say "whether he will come," Turkish lays out both options — the affirmative and the negative — and nominalizes the second one. The pattern is [verb]-(y)Ip [verb]-mA-(y)AcAK-possessive: "his coming-or-not-coming."
The first verb takes the -(y)Ip converb, which just means "and / and then" and links it to the negative counterpart. The second verb carries the negation -mA plus the nominalizer and possessive. Together they mean "whether (or not)."
Gelip gelmeyeceğini bilmiyorum.
I don't know whether he'll come (or not).
Bu kelimenin doğru olup olmadığını sordu.
He asked whether this word was correct (or not).
Anlayıp anlamadığını anlamadım.
I couldn't tell whether you understood (or not).
Notice the rhythm: gelip gelmeyeceğini is literally "his come-and-not-come" — the affirmative stem gel- with -ip, then gel- again with the negative -me-, future -yecek, possessive -i, and accusative -ni. This twin structure is the Turkish equivalent of "whether." There is nothing to "translate" the word "whether" with; the construction carries it.
A second, slightly more colloquial route nominalizes a mI-question directly. You take the question particle mI that marks a yes/no question and embed the whole thing with -DIK + possessive. This is common after verbs of (not) knowing.
Geldi mi gelmedi mi, bilmiyorum.
Whether he came or not, I don't know. (echoing both polarities, very natural in speech)
Doğru mu değil mi emin değilim.
I'm not sure whether it's right or not.
Reporting questions: "asked"
When the main verb is sormak ("to ask") or another reporting verb, the same nominalizations apply. This overlaps with reported speech, but the mechanics are identical to what you have already seen: nominalize the inner question.
Nereye gittiğimi sordu.
She asked where I was going / had gone.
Gelip gelmeyeceğini sordu.
He asked whether you'd come (or not).
Saat kaçta başlayacağını merak ediyorum.
I wonder what time it'll start.
Because the embedded verb is nominalized, the tense and person of the original question are carried inside it — there is no separate "backshift" rule to memorize as in English ("asked where I was going"). Turkish simply nominalizes the original tense.
Word order
The embedded (nominalized) question, being an object noun phrase, normally sits immediately before the main verb — the default object position in Turkish. The main verb (bilmiyorum, söyle, sordu, öğren) comes last.
Toplantının ne zaman biteceğini kimse bilmiyor.
Nobody knows when the meeting will end.
Onun haklı olup olmadığını zamanla göreceğiz.
We'll see in time whether he's right.
Common mistakes
❌ Eğer geliyor mu bilmiyorum.
Incorrect — inserting 'eğer' (if) and keeping a finite question.
✅ Gelip gelmeyeceğini bilmiyorum.
I don't know whether he'll come.
This is the central trap. Eğer does exist, but it means "if" only in conditional sentences ("if it rains, …"), never "whether" in an embedded question. For "whether," there is no word at all — use the -(y)Ip…-mA pattern.
❌ Nerede oturuyor söyle.
Incorrect — leaving the embedded verb finite ('he lives').
✅ Nerede oturduğunu söyle.
Tell me where he lives.
You cannot drop a finite question into a main clause. The inner verb must be nominalized: oturuyor ("he lives") becomes oturduğunu ("his living-place," accusative).
❌ Ne istiyorsun biliyorum.
Incorrect — finite 'what do you want' left unembedded.
✅ Ne istediğini biliyorum.
I know what you want.
The English-style move — taking the question whole and putting a verb in front of it — produces ungrammatical Turkish. Nominalize.
❌ Geleceğini gelmeyeceğini bilmiyorum.
Incorrect — both halves nominalized; the first should be the -(y)Ip converb.
✅ Gelip gelmeyeceğini bilmiyorum.
I don't know whether he'll come (or not).
In the "whether" pattern, only the second (negative) verb is nominalized. The first verb takes the bare -(y)Ip converb: gelip, not geleceğini.
Key takeaways
- Turkish embeds questions by nominalizing them, not by keeping a finite clause. The embedded question becomes an object noun phrase before the main verb.
- Wh-questions: keep the question word; rebuild the verb as -DIK (non-future) or -(y)AcAK (future) + possessive + case → Ne istediğini söyle.
- Yes/no questions ("whether"): there is no "if/whether" word. State both polarities — affirmative verb + -(y)Ip, then negative verb nominalized → Gelip gelmeyeceğini bilmiyorum.
- A colloquial alternative echoes a mI-question for both polarities: Geldi mi gelmedi mi, bilmiyorum.
- Eğer = "if" in conditionals only — never "whether" in an embedded question.
- There is no English-style backshift; the original tense lives inside the nominalization.
Now practice Turkish
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Start learning Turkish→Related Topics
- Nominalized 'That'-ClausesB1 — How Turkish renders English 'that'-complements with -DIK (factual) or -(y)AcAK (future) plus a possessive and case, with the embedded subject in the genitive.
- The Converb -(y)Ip ('and then / -ing')B1 — How -(y)Ip joins same-subject actions into one chain, dropping tense and person from every verb but the last.
- The Object/Factive Participle -DIKB1 — How -DIK plus a possessive suffix relativizes objects and obliques (gördüğüm adam) and nominalizes past/non-future facts in complement clauses.
- Reported Speech: diye, -DIK, and demekB2 — How Turkish reports what people say — direct quotation with diye and dedi versus indirect nominalized clauses with -DIK and -(y)AcAK.