Süt kaynadı mı ocağı kapat.

to turn off

Breakdown of Süt kaynadı mı ocağı kapat.

• ocak: the stove
• süt: the milk
• kaynadı mı: when it starts boiling

Questions & Answers about Süt kaynadı mı ocağı kapat.

What does mı mean here?

In this sentence, mı is the yes/no question particle.

By itself, Süt kaynadı mı? means Did the milk boil?

But when a clause like that is followed by another clause, especially an instruction, Turkish often uses it with a meaning like:

• if
• when
• once

So Süt kaynadı mı ocağı kapat is literally something like:

• Has the milk boiled? Turn off the stove.

But the natural meaning is:

• When/if the milk boils, turn off the stove.

This is a very common Turkish pattern.

Why is kaynadı in the past tense? The milk has not boiled yet.

That is a very common learner question.

Kaynadı is the simple past form of kaynamak (to boil / to come to a boil).

Even though English would usually say if the milk boils or when the milk boils, Turkish often uses a structure with past + mı to mean:

• once it has happened
• when it happens
• if it happens

So here kaynadı mı does not really feel like ordinary past time in English. It is more like:

• once the milk has boiled
• when the milk boils

This is just a normal Turkish pattern, especially in spoken instructions.

Why isn’t there a separate word for if or when?