Polis şüpheliyi sorguladı.

Because the most neutral Turkish word order is usually Subject + Object + Verb.

So:

• Polis = subject
• şüpheliyi = object
• sorguladı = verb

That gives Polis şüpheliyi sorguladı.

Unlike English, Turkish often puts the verb last. Other word orders are possible, but this is the basic, neutral one.

The ending -yi marks the direct object as definite or specific.

In Turkish, a specific direct object usually takes the accusative ending:

• şüpheli = a suspect / suspect
• şüpheliyi = the suspect / the specific suspect

So in this sentence, the speaker is talking about a particular suspect, not just any suspect.

There are two things happening:

1. The noun ends in a vowel: şüpheli
2. The accusative suffix also begins with a vowel

Turkish normally inserts a buffer consonant y between two vowels, so:

• şüpheli + i would be awkward
• Turkish makes it şüpheliyi

The final vowel of the suffix is i because of vowel harmony.

The accusative suffix has four main forms:

• -ı
• -i
• -u
• -ü

The choice depends on the last vowel of the noun.

In şüpheli, the last vowel is i, so the correct accusative form is -i.

Because the word ends in a vowel, Turkish adds the buffer y, giving:

• şüpheli + y + i = şüpheliyi

The dictionary form is sorgulamak, meaning to question / to interrogate.

To get sorguladı:

• remove the infinitive ending -mak
• you get the stem sorgula-
• add the past tense ending -dı

So:

• sorgula-
  • -dı → sorguladı

It marks the simple past in Turkish.

So sorguladı means:

• questioned
• interrogated

More specifically, this is the direct/definite past form, often used for events the speaker presents as known facts.

Because polis is the subject, and subjects in Turkish are usually in the nominative, which has no special ending.

So:

• polis = subject form
• no extra case suffix is needed

This is normal in Turkish. The object is the word that gets marked here, not the subject.

It can depend on context.

polis can refer to:

• a police officer
• the police in a more general sense

In a simple teaching sentence like this, learners often understand it as the police officer or the police depending on the translation given.

If you want to make the plural explicit, Turkish can use polisler for police officers.

Turkish does not have articles like English the or a/an.

Instead, Turkish shows definiteness in other ways, such as:

• context
• word order
• case marking

In this sentence, şüpheliyi is marked with the accusative, which strongly suggests a specific suspect. That is one reason English often translates it with the suspect.

Yes. Turkish word order is flexible because case endings help show what each word is doing.

For example:

• Polis şüpheliyi sorguladı. = neutral
• Şüpheliyi polis sorguladı. = puts more focus on the suspect
• Polis sorguladı şüpheliyi. = possible, but more marked and less neutral

For learners, the safest default is the original Subject + Object + Verb order.

It can be both.

• As an adjective, şüpheli can mean suspicious or suspected
• As a noun, it can mean suspect

In this sentence, it is functioning as a noun because it is the direct object of the verb and takes the accusative ending:

• şüpheliyi = the suspect

A few useful points:

• ş sounds like sh
• ü is like the u in German über or French tu
• ı has no exact English equivalent; it is a dull, back vowel

Roughly:

• Polis ≈ po-LEES
• şüpheliyi ≈ shü-phe-li-yi
• sorguladı ≈ sor-gu-la-duh

Also notice that şüpheliyi has two vowel sounds at the end because it is:

• şüpheli
  • -yi

So you really do hear both parts.